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
From kefta kebabs and tandoori chicken skewers to lamb souvlaki, Thai moo ping and negima yakitori, my hand will always gravitate to anything grilled on a stick.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 7, 2022
He bellowed—a sound that was somewhere between a yell, a moo, and a really loud belch.
From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan
Now in previews at the St. James Theater, where it opens on July 10, this “Into the Woods” presents Milky White as a puppet who breathes, coughs, moos and mourns — which works enchantingly.
From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2022
Think about it: What other restaurant in the world has a cow-shaped cheese cart that moos?
From Washington Post ● Dec. 10, 2021
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
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
Does it put them in the mooed for this week’s Slate News Quiz?
From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2022
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
When Rosie heard us, she turned her head back and mooed her happy moo and waggled her rump to tell Joseph she loved him.
From "Orbiting Jupiter" by Gary D. Schmidt
Alongside the mooing of cows, it isn’t unusual to hear a director shouting "lights, camera, action" here.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2024
They were docile animals, thanks perhaps to the cow DNA, which also explains the mooing and the subtle patchy fur patterns.
From Slate ● Jan. 28, 2023
“It’s a mooing with this kind of metallic ring to it.”
From New York Times ● Nov. 27, 2022
Picked as a playful joke by the late fire district board member Alfred Aya Jr., the mooing sound is a riff off the system’s acronym.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 3, 2022
In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I was sure I could hear Bessie mooing.
From "The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan
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.
