Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

cry wolf

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.15 in modern English

Syllables: cry -wolf
IPA

18

Scrabble Score

7

Letters

2

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To raise a false alarm; to constantly warn others about an imagined threat, thereby failing to get assistance when a real threat appears.

Example Sentences

"The politicians would cry wolf at the slightest provocation so when the real threat appeared no one believed them."
"The newspaper placards that had cried "wolf!" so often, cried "wolf!" now in vain."
"[…]and the critical sense of the professors counts for little, for they cry wolf too often[…]"
"[…]those who created the worst economic mess in postwar history should be the last people crying wolf 1,000 days into this administration[…]"
"These intensifying disasters now striking richer countries, she said, show that developing countries seeking the world’s help to fight climate change “have not been crying wolf.”"
"The influential tech analyst Ben Thompson has also criticised [Dario] Amodei for crying wolf about the risks of AI, which he describes as a “disaster-porn-as-marketing tool”."

Etymology

From the fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf, where a little boy amuses himself by repeatedly crying "wolf" to see the panic he causes in the community, but is consequently ignored when he tries to alert them to a real wolf.

Inflected Forms

cries wolf (present, singular) crying wolf (participle, present) cried wolf (participle, past) cried wolf (past) cry “wolf” (alternative)

Phrases

Chicken Little

Frequently Paired Words

Chicken Little

Questions

What does cry wolf mean?: To raise a false alarm; to constantly warn others about an imagined threat, thereby failing to get assistance when a real threat appears.
Where does cry wolf come from?: From the fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf, where a little boy amuses himself by repeatedly crying "wolf" to see the panic he causes in the community, but is consequently ignored when he tries to alert them to a real wolf.

How to pronounce cry wolf

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “cry wolf”.
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