meow
Meanings
Plural: meows
Noun
- the sound made by a cat (or any sound resembling this)
- The cry of a cat.
- The drug mephedrone.
Verb
- cry like a cat
- "the cat meowed"
- Of a cat, to make its cry.
Intj
- Used to indicate the cry of a cat.
- Used in reply to a spiteful or catty comment.
- Used to express seductiveness, mimicking a growl.
Origin / Etymology
Alteration of earlier mew, from Middle English mewen, mouwen (“to mew, meow”), of onomatopoeic origin.
Compare Saterland Frisian mauje, miauje (“to meow”), West Frisian miaukje (“to meow”), Dutch miauwen (“to meow”), Middle Low German mauwen, mawen, mouwen (“to meow”) (whence modern German Low German mauen, miauen (“to meow”)), Middle High German mouen, modern German miauen (“to meow”). Some spellings were modelled on French miaou.
Meow and its spelling variants entered widespread currency in the 19th century, mostly replacing mew, possibly because phonetic change meant that word had ceased to approximate a cat's cry (contrast the pronunciation of Middle English mewen /ˈmɛu̯ən/ compared to modern /ˈmjuː/).
Scrabble Score: 9
meow is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordmeow is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
meow is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary