The word you’re looking for is dough.
Dough is the thick, malleable mixture of flour, water, and other ingredients such as yeast or salt that is used to make bread. When combined and kneaded, dough rises due to the action of yeast, and it becomes the base from which bread is baked. The process of preparing dough for bread involves mixing these ingredients, allowing the dough to rise (through fermentation), and then shaping it into loaves or rolls before baking.
The reason “dough” rhymes with “low” is because both words share the same “ow” sound at the end, making them a perfect match phonetically. In breadmaking, dough is essentially the precursor to the final product—the bread itself—and is one of the key ingredients that determines the texture, flavor, and overall quality of the finished product.
The steps of making dough can vary slightly depending on the type of bread, but typically, you mix the ingredients together, knead the dough to develop gluten (which gives the bread structure), allow it to rise, shape it, and bake it. Yeast plays a significant role in the process by fermenting sugars in the dough and releasing carbon dioxide gas, which causes the dough to expand and become light and airy.