meow
/miˈaʊ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.29 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "“The last thing they had seen in 2012 before that break was a short from Simon’s Cat called ‘Cat Man Do,’” said Lamothe. “When you leave 800 people in the dark, they will do something. That’s what Fantasia is. But because they had just seen that cat go meow, they meowed.”"
- "A cat’s meow and a cow’s moo, I can recite them all / Just tell me where it hurts you, honey"
- "It’s from within that breathing room the meow finally emerged. […] These days every Fantasia screening begins with a cacophony of meows — timed by the audience to start and stop at black leader."
- "The cat meows at me and bird-watches by the window facing the street. Sometimes I bird-watch with him because the older I get, the more interested I get in birds lol."
Etymology
Alteration of earlier mew, from Middle English mewen, mouwen (“to mew, meow”), of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Saterland Frisian mauje, miauje (“to meow”), West Frisian miaukje (“to meow”), Dutch miauwen (“to meow”), Middle Low German mauwen, mawen, mouwen (“to meow”) (whence modern German Low German mauen, miauen (“to meow”)), Middle High German mouen, modern German miauen (“to meow”). Some spellings were modelled on French miaou. Meow and its spelling variants entered widespread currency in the 19th century, mostly replacing mew, possibly because phonetic change meant that word had ceased to approximate a cat's cry (contrast the pronunciation of Middle English mewen /ˈmɛu̯ən/ compared to modern /ˈmjuː/). (mephedrone): Perhaps because of the drug's distinctive smell resembling cat urine.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: mewen
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /miˈaʊ/
- British English: /miˈaʊ/