Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

mou

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.11 in modern English

Syllables: mou
IPA

5

Scrabble Score

3

Letters

1

Syllables

3

Unique Chars

Meaning

particle

Sentence-final particle, forming a tag question.

Colloquial

noun

Initialism of memorandum of understanding.

noun

Alternative form of MoU.

name

A surname from Chinese.

Example Sentences

"Kopitiam mou?"
"Day trip mou?"
"Hiking tomorrow. Onz mou?"
"Mr Netanyahu, the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history, is seeking another term in the elections scheduled for later this year, with his political rivals using the MoU as a strick to beat him with before October's vote."
"“I don’t think it is possible run an effective transition without entering into the MOUs in order to get access to critical government support,” Max Stier, the president and CEO of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, told CNN. […] GSA “is prepared to provide services to the Trump transition team once an MOU is executed and services are accepted,” a GSA spokesperson said."
""I suspect the MOU may be less awful than the administration's disastrous sales pitch," Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies posted on X yesterday. (Later he conceded the deal was not better at all but, in fact, "even worse than I assumed.")"

Etymology

From Cantonese 冇 (mou5), also influenced by Malay mau variant of mahu (“to want”).

Origin

Source language: Chinese

Word Breakdown

Root: -, 牟

Usage

Colloquial

Inflected Forms

MoUs (plural) M.O.U. (alternative) M. O. U. (alternative)

Questions

What does mou mean?: Sentence-final particle, forming a tag question.
Where does mou come from?: It is traced to Chinese.

How to pronounce mou

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “mou”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
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Repeat and practice — Say “mou” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.