maw
/mɔ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.96 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of an animal.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of an animal.
Countable; Slang; Uncountable
noun
The swim bladder of a fish, especially when used as food in Chinese cuisine.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw"
- "“I saw the opening maw of hell, With endless pains and sorrows there; Which none but they that feel can tell— Oh, I was plunging to despair."
- "[…] / As you lift your shirt I'm closer / grab me by the maw into your arm- // […] / Sniff it with my maw I / […] / Smelling all of you its / […] / Getting me hard gimme more / […] / more more"
- "Shut your maw!"
- "She fumbled with her bag, and produced from its little maw a scented handkerchief."
- "Adam requires a touch of feminine lace and a whisper of diaphanous silk, not a direct vision of the gaping maw of the human vulva."
Etymology
From Middle English mawe, maghe, maȝe, from Old English maga (“stomach; maw”), from Proto-West Germanic *magō, from Proto-Germanic *magô (“belly; stomach”), from Proto-Indo-European *mak-, *maks- (“bag, bellows, belly”). Cognates Cognate with West Frisian mage, Dutch maag (“stomach; belly”), German Low German Maag, German Magen (“stomach”), Danish mave, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish mage (“stomach; belly”), and also with Welsh megin (“bellows”), archaic Russian мошна́ (mošná, “pocket, bag”), Lithuanian mãkas (“purse”), Finnish maha (“stomach”), Estonian magu (“stomach”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /mɔ/
- British English: /mɔː/