meow
Americannoun
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meows
plural
-
the characteristic sound a cat makes.
-
a spiteful or catty remark.
verb (used without object)
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meows,
present (3rd person singular)
-
meowed,
past participle, past
-
meowing
present participle
-
to make the sound of a cat.
-
to make a spiteful or catty remark.
verb
interjection
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
meowsimple
-
meowssimple
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have meowedperfect
-
has meowedperfect
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am meowingprogressive
-
are meowingprogressive
-
is meowingprogressive
-
have been meowingperfect progressive
-
has been meowingperfect progressive
Past
-
meowedsimple
-
had meowedperfect
-
was meowingprogressive
-
were meowingprogressive
-
had been meowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of meow
First recorded in 1870–75; 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:
They examined vocalizations from both domestic and wild cats and found that domestication has especially increased how much a cat's meow can vary.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 11, 2026
He would eat and then meow to leave.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2025
As I arrived, I was greeted by a loud meow from Julia's cat Monty.
From BBC ● Jan. 30, 2024
Research has shown that cats meow primarily when in the presence of humans, suggesting that we can’t help but skew the app’s inputs, while some cats rarely vocalize at all.
From Slate ● Nov. 13, 2023
It was so like Mother to tame a den of tigers and then jump at the sound of a kitten’s meow.
From "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" by Bette Bao Lord
To better understand how evolution shaped these sounds, the researchers compared domestic cat meows with those of five wild cat species: African wildcat, European wildcat, jungle cat, cheetah, and cougar.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 11, 2026
Other books showed a warmer, more playful side, such as in “Bark, George,” about a dog that meows.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 21, 2025
According to Sanchez, the app has had nearly 10 million downloads and 12,500 paying subscribers, each contributing to a vast library of crowdsourced meows.
From Slate ● Nov. 13, 2023
The sound of these meows has evolved during domestication to more effectively communicate with us.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2023
No hungry cats, whose meows, for some reason, always sounded like babies crying.
From "As Brave As You" by Jason Reynolds
Upon seeing me, Momo meowed and then purred.
From New York Times ● Aug. 29, 2022
“I thought I heard a meow, and I thought my mind’s playing tricks on me so I hollered his name out, and he meowed again,” Gibson said.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 22, 2021
Ellis noticed that the cat meowed in twos, and the “MADtv” sketch came to mind, so the name stuck.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 14, 2021
The class was finishing a tutorial begun the day before: how to build a simple app in which a button with a cat picture meowed when tapped.
From Slate ● Nov. 23, 2015
We fed it some scraps of food and gave it water, but it still meowed.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
In the more upmarket north of Tehran, many residents appeared to have left, with the meowing of cats and birdsong replacing the usual din of traffic jams.
From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 2026
The low frequency portion of the whinny comes from vocal fold vibration, much like a person singing or a cat meowing.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 25, 2026
A cat meowing for Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Peyton Manning chucking Bud Light beers to patrons in a bar and Kris Jenner stacking Oreo cookies.
From New York Times ● Feb. 6, 2024
The new experiment instead suggests that purring, like meowing and hissing, is a passive phenomenon that plays out automatically after cats’ brains provide the initial signal to purr, the researchers conclude.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 3, 2023
The nights are usually quiet, except for the meowing cats or the rooster next door that never knows what time it is.
From "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" by Erika L. Sánchez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
