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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

caterwaul.

To cry as cats in heat; to make a harsh, offensive noise.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈkæt.ə.wɔːl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkæt.ɚ.wɔl/US/ˈkæt.ɚ.wɑl/cot-caught-merger
  1. To cry as cats in heat; to make a harsh, offensive noise.

    intransitive
  2. To have a noisy argument, like cats.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English caterwrawen, from cater (“cat”) + wrawen, wrawlen (“cry like a cat”), equivalent to cat + waul. Compare Low German katerwaulen (“to cry like a cat”) and Middle Dutch cater (“tomcat”) (Dutch kater).

noun/ˈkæt.ə.wɔːl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkæt.ɚ.wɔl/US/ˈkæt.ɚ.wɑl/cot-caught-merger
  1. A yowling.

  2. A noisy quarrel.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English caterwrawen, from cater (“cat”) + wrawen, wrawlen (“cry like a cat”), equivalent to cat + waul. Compare Low German katerwaulen (“to cry like a cat”) and Middle Dutch cater (“tomcat”) (Dutch kater).

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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.