moo
Americanverb (used without object)
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moos,
present (3rd person singular)
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mooed,
past participle, past
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mooing
present participle
noun
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moos
plural
verb
interjection
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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moosimple
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moossimple
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have mooedperfect
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has mooedperfect
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am mooingprogressive
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are mooingprogressive
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is mooingprogressive
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have been mooingperfect progressive
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has been mooingperfect progressive
Past
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mooedsimple
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had mooedperfect
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was mooingprogressive
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were mooingprogressive
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had been mooingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of moo
First recorded in 1540–50; imitative
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A distant moo came from beyond a hill.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
With the afternoon sun beating down while the cows snort and moo, the workers inspect and clean the animals' teats, which are then attached to milking equipment.
From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2026
“They moo a lot and poop a bit, but other than that, they’re pretty good workers,” Yancey says.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 18, 2023
Alsop took a painterly approach to Mahler’s many details — birdsong and bells, dewdrop harps, the lowing moo of a tuba.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 20, 2023
He bellowed—a sound that was somewhere between a yell, a moo, and a really loud belch.
From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan
Reaves moos back before he can find out.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2022
Last week, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter-rapper posted a short clip on Twitter and Instagram in which she dances in a cow costume and quite literally moos over some swelling harmonies and jazz guitar.
From Slate ● Aug. 15, 2018
For example: Betty White: “It moos and makes milk.”
From Time ● Sep. 14, 2016
With the sun setting, the din of moos and bleats subsided as makeshift feeding troughs were filled and animals settled down to dinner.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 10, 2016
Their excited moos echoed out from the barn and across the farm.
From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown
Events keep drifting like a lost motorist who starts out on the interstate and takes a series of wrong turns until he’s on a one-lane dirt road, getting mooed at.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Cooper said the cows ultimately "ended up wandering back home. And I kid you not, one cow mooed — then the other cows mooed."
From Fox News ● Mar. 3, 2022
A few miles down the road, a chorus of cattle and sheep mooed and bleated as we talked to Andrew Robert Tudor Davies on the family farm.
From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2021
“We don’t vote, and we just try to pray for our leaders,” she said as her cows mooed loudly and one of her six children called out to her as he tinkered with a wrench.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 9, 2019
The cow mooed, and he recoiled, crouching and grabbing the ladder with both hands to steady himself.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
The town is so off the beaten track, the loudest sound is cows mooing in the distance.
From Seattle Times ● May 25, 2024
Two hundred miles southeast of Hells Canyon, cows are mooing and birds are chirping as the sun rises over the Snake River Plain.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2023
They were heckled, told to sit down and mooing sounds were made at them.
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2023
Sure, they were pretty convincing, the creatures lurching and, weirdly, mooing through the woods of Michigan and Pennsylvania and Georgia and Washington state.
From Slate ● Jan. 28, 2023
“We found her because she was mooing so loud,” Seth said.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
