pow

Everyday

1. A word for the sound of a punch, a bang or a small explosion, used in comics and cartoons: «Pow! Biff! Bang!» tree →
2. (POW, abbreviation) A prisoner of war: a soldier captured and held by the enemy during a war. tree →
3. (informal) A word to show something sudden and exciting happened: «And then, pow, the lights went out.» tree →

In the lessons

In comics it is a sound word (onomatopoeia) that makes action feel loud. In history lessons POW camps held captured soldiers in the World Wars. Phrases: «pow!», «POW camp», «a former POW».

Examples

• In the comic, the hero's fist went «Pow!» tree →
• Write some sound words like «pow», «crash» and «boom». tree →
• My great-grandad was a POW in the Second World War. tree →
• The POWs were sent home when the war ended. tree →
• We were walking along and, pow, it started pouring with rain. tree →
• The fireworks went pow, pow, pow over the river. tree →
• Den he draw back en come down on de tree--pow! tree →

Note

As a sound word it is often written in capitals with an exclamation mark: POW! As the abbreviation it is written POW (plural POWs) and read as letters, P-O-W. Pow is an onomatopoeia, a word that sounds like what it means.