Meaning & use
meows
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“meows” is a form of “meow”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
verbintransitive
(of a cat) makes its typical long, high crying sound.
Grammar: No object: the cat meows. Often used with an adverb or phrase such as loudly or for food.
Patterns
- meow loudly
- meow at someone
- meow for something
Our cat meows loudly every morning until someone feeds her.
The kitten meows at the closed door, hoping to be let out.
He meows back at his cat as a kind of game.
nouncountable
the crying sound a cat makes.
Grammar: Countable: one meow, two meows. Often used with a soft, loud, or little.
Patterns
- a loud meow
- give a meow
- hear a meow
I heard a faint meow coming from under the car.
She gave a small meow and rubbed against my leg.
The cat's meows grew louder when it smelled the fish.
Word forms
| base form | meow |
|---|---|
| third person singular | meows |
| past tense | meowed |
| past participle | meowed |
| -ing form | meowing |
| plural (noun) | meows |
Common combinations
- meow loudly
- The cat meowed loudly outside my window all night.
- a loud meow
- We heard a loud meow from the kitchen.
- meow for food
- The kittens meow for food as soon as they see a bowl.
- meow at the door
- My cat meows at the door when she wants to go out.
- a faint meow
- A faint meow came from the box on the porch.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- meow noun
- One cat sound; the singular form of meows.
- meowing noun
- The act or sound of a cat making this noise.
- meowed verb
- Past tense and past participle of meow.
Commonly confused: meows or mews?
meows vs mews
Mews is a British word for a street or yard of former stables, now often houses. It sounds the same as meows but has nothing to do with cats.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses meows correctly.
Choose one answer.
Meows is the third-person singular present form, so it fits a singular subject such as the cat in a present-time sentence. Option 1 uses the base form with a singular subject, option 2 mixes present and past time, and option 3 wrongly pairs a plural subject with the singular verb form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “meows”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.