overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

yowl.

A prolonged, loud cry, like the sound of an animal; a wail; a howl.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/jaʊl/
  1. A prolonged, loud cry, like the sound of an animal; a wail; a howl.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English youlen, goulen, from Old Norse gaula (“to low, bellow, howl, scream”), related to Icelandic gaula (“to yell, howl, roar”), Faroese geyla (“to bawl, squall, shout, yell, bellow”), Norwegian gaule (“to roar, howl, whine, weep noisily”), dialectal Swedish gjöla, Scots gowl (“to howl, yell, roar”), Shetlandic Scots gjol. Initial y- possibly influenced by Middle English yollen, yellen (“to yell”).

verb/jaʊl/
  1. Utter a yowl.

    intransitive
  2. Express by yowling; utter with a yowl.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English youlen, goulen, from Old Norse gaula (“to low, bellow, howl, scream”), related to Icelandic gaula (“to yell, howl, roar”), Faroese geyla (“to bawl, squall, shout, yell, bellow”), Norwegian gaule (“to roar, howl, whine, weep noisily”), dialectal Swedish gjöla, Scots gowl (“to howl, yell, roar”), Shetlandic Scots gjol. Initial y- possibly influenced by Middle English yollen, yellen (“to yell”).

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

yowl has 4 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

yowl studioyowl workshello, yowl

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.