mouthful

American  

[mouth-fool] / ˈmaʊθˌfʊl /

noun

• mouthfuls
  plural

1. the amount a mouth can hold.

2. the amount taken into the mouth at one time.

3. a small quantity.

4. Informal. a spoken remark of great truth, relevance, effectiveness, etc..

   You said a mouthful!

5. a long word or group of words, especially one that is hard to pronounce.

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mouthful British  

/ ˈmaʊθˌfʊl /

noun

1. as much as is held in the mouth at one time

2. a small quantity, as of food

3. a long word or phrase that is difficult to say

4. informal an abusive response

5. informal an impressive remark (esp in the phrase say a mouthful )

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mouthful Idioms  

1. see say a mouthful.

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Spelling

See -ful.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• mouthfuls
  plural

Etymology

Origin of mouthful

1375–1425; late Middle English. See mouth, -ful

Explanation

A mouthful is an amount of some substance that can fit in a person's mouth. If you eat a mouthful of chocolate cream pie, you consume a bite of it. A mischievous kid might spit a mouthful of water at her sister, while a thirsty athlete might gulp a mouthful of water after her workout. In both cases, the mouthful is as much water as can fit in their mouths. If you're not very hungry for dinner, you might just have a few mouthfuls of mashed potatoes — just a few bites, in other words. Another kind of mouthful is a long, complicated word, phrase, or sentence.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mouthful mouthfuls

Delight in rituals that engage the senses, like slowly moving a mouthful of Champagne around your tongue, or lighting palo santo in the dark and letting its smoke envelop you.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

A small, goggle-eyed creature with pointy ears and a mouthful of jagged teeth has somehow become one of the defining consumer products this decade.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026

If that seems like a mouthful, here’s the takeaway from researchers themselves: Allen Scheie, a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, says the result “raises the bar for what can be expected from quantum computers.”

From Barron's ● Mar. 26, 2026

It took only a few words mumbled with a mouthful of burger for Tom Curtis to strike a blow against his biggest competitor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026

Jonah mumbles around a mouthful of corn dog.

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

During a recording session, Ms. Ackmann writes, “Dolly popped a pint of Häagen-Dazs into the microwave until it softened, then scooped out mouthfuls with a potato chip.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026

"If the trucks stop, a whole country will be switched off," he said, between mouthfuls of rice.

From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2025

Between mouthfuls of doughnut, Ms Mullan adds: "This is my favourite place in Hull. On a day like today, the sun shining, looking out at the boats, you could be anywhere."

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2025

With bottles and glasses lined up before them, judges from several countries sampled various brands, swishing gulps of water and sometimes spitting mouthfuls into canisters, as wine tasters do.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 20, 2023

But I was uneasy that a dog was loose and there were kittens, seven mouthfuls, nearby in the shed.

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez