meow
Americannoun
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meows
plural
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the characteristic sound a cat makes.
-
a spiteful or catty remark.
verb (used without object)
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meows,
present (3rd person singular)
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meowed,
past participle, past
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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
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meowsimple
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meowssimple
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have meowedperfect
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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:
Together, these results highlight how domestication shaped the modern cat's voice, turning the meow into a flexible communication tool while leaving the purr as a steady marker of individuality.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 11, 2026
He would eat and then meow to leave.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2025
"She's super tiny, her breath smells so bad, and she doesn't have a meow," the singer dotes.
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2025
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
“Her meow is so good I keep thinking there’s an actual cat around.”
From "The Benefits of Being an Octopus" by Ann Braden
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
The study also suggested that a cat’s meows and other vocalizations are greatly misinterpreted and that people should consider both vocal and visual cues to try to determine what’s going on with their pets.
From New York Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
Then, too soon after dawn, her demeanor abruptly changes: She bites my hands, legs, and neck, and meows in my face with a force that can only be described as belligerent.
From Slate ● Nov. 13, 2023
From a voice production point of view, the meows and the screeches are not special.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2023
When I don’t move, he meows, letting me know that his sympathy has run short, I crack my door and let him out as I flip on the light.
From "Dumplin'" by Julie Murphy
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
The branches of the big palm tree in Berges’s front yard were lashing with a dry clatter, and a cat meowed over and over and over in front of some kitchen door closed against it.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
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
"People pay most attention to meowing because cats mainly use these vocalizations toward us," explains the study's first author, Danilo Russo.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 11, 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
For a day or two he had been rubbing his eyes and meowing disconsolately, but I thought nothing of it.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
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.
