A rowboat is a small open boat that you move by pulling oars — long poles with a flat end — not with a motor and not with a sail. You sit facing the back of the boat, which surprises learners, and pull. In American English people write it as one word, rowboat; in British English they more often say rowing boat. It is an everyday word, not a fancy one. A canoe or a kayak is a different shape, and you use a paddle, not a pair of oars. Though actually, in casual talk people sometimes stretch rowboat to mean almost any little boat you pull along by hand.