overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

baa.

The characteristic cry or bleating of a sheep or (broader) a sheep or goat.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun[bɑː]UK[bæ]US[bɑ]US[bæ̰ː]
  1. The characteristic cry or bleating of a sheep or (broader) a sheep or goat.

    onomatopoeic
Where this word comes from

Compare German bäh, mäh; an imitative word. Notes on phonological development The pronunciation /bɑː/ is perhaps a development from earlier /bæː/ reflecting the shift of /æː/ to /ɑː/ during the 18th and 19th centuries. Compare Early Modern English bae, bea, both "to baa", respectively displaying the then current pronunciation of Middle English /aː/ as /æː/ and the failure of Middle English /ɛː/ to raise, and the replacement of mew with meow for another instance where recent sound change has made onomatopoeia opaque.

intj[bɑː]UK[bæ]US[bɑ]US[bæ̰ː]
  1. The characteristic cry of a sheep or (broader) a sheep or goat.

    onomatopoeic
Where this word comes from

Compare German bäh, mäh; an imitative word. Notes on phonological development The pronunciation /bɑː/ is perhaps a development from earlier /bæː/ reflecting the shift of /æː/ to /ɑː/ during the 18th and 19th centuries. Compare Early Modern English bae, bea, both "to baa", respectively displaying the then current pronunciation of Middle English /aː/ as /æː/ and the failure of Middle English /ɛː/ to raise, and the replacement of mew with meow for another instance where recent sound change has made onomatopoeia opaque.

verb[bɑː]UK[bæ]US[bɑ]US[bæ̰ː]
  1. To make the characteristic cry of a sheep or (broader) a sheep or goat.

Where this word comes from

Compare German bäh, mäh; an imitative word. Notes on phonological development The pronunciation /bɑː/ is perhaps a development from earlier /bæː/ reflecting the shift of /æː/ to /ɑː/ during the 18th and 19th centuries. Compare Early Modern English bae, bea, both "to baa", respectively displaying the then current pronunciation of Middle English /aː/ as /æː/ and the failure of Middle English /ɛː/ to raise, and the replacement of mew with meow for another instance where recent sound change has made onomatopoeia opaque.

noun/bɑː/
  1. The letter ب in the Arabic script.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Arabic بَاء (bāʔ).

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

baa has 3 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

baa studiobaa workshello, baa

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.