Yowl

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A prolonged, loud cry, like the sound of an animal; a wail; a howl.
  2. 2
    a very loud utterance (like the sound of an animal) wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    Utter a yowl. intransitive
  2. 2
    utter shrieks, as of cats wordnet
  3. 3
    Express by yowling; utter with a yowl. transitive
  4. 4
    cry loudly, as of animals wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bellowhowlbarkbattle crybawlbay

Etymology

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”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.