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
“It’s regular old moo goo gai pan, Dad,” my mom says.
From "The Fourteenth Goldfish" by Jennifer L. Holm
Think about it: What other restaurant in the world has a cow-shaped cheese cart that moos?
From Washington Post ● Dec. 10, 2021
A few steps away, thousands of Holstein cows looked on, their moos audible over the industrial whir of the manure separator.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2020
DAMINIYA, Nigeria — Hundreds of horned cattle wandered back to camp after a long day of grazing, their moos sounding more like wails.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2018
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
The robot was answered by a chorus of moos.
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
From above the clouds, we hiked Trail 104 into a valley where cowbells echoed in an incredible cowbell concert that seemed to crescendo each time one of the cows mooed.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 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
So, perhaps regularly eating meat that's never mooed, oinked, or encountered a farm may be a logical next step?
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2021
Sophie mooed, which sparked Butter mooing, and Caleb had never quite stopped crying his dog song.
From "Gone Crazy in Alabama" by Rita Williams-Garcia
One of the animals included is cow, which adds a moment of levity to the story when we learn about the Bigfeet’s mooing call.
From Slate ● Jan. 28, 2023
Residents in Glasgow housing estates could soon be hearing the sound of mooing cows and clucking hens outside their homes.
From BBC ● Dec. 8, 2022
A pilot program with more monitoring is now the industry standard, with electronic tags on every mooing export’s ear to track deaths and slaughterhouse practices.
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 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
“We found her because she was mooing so loud,” Seth said.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
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.
