growl
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A deep, rumbling, threatening sound made in the throat by an animal.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
growlIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡɹaʊl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A deep, rumbling, threatening sound made in the throat by an animal.
The sound of growling (as made by animals)
by extension
A similar sound made by a human.
by extension
The rumbling sound made by a human's hungry stomach.
by extension
An aggressive grumbling.
by extension
Death growl
verb
intransitive
To utter a deep guttural sound, as an angry animal; to give forth an angry, grumbling sound.
transitive
To express (something) by growling.
intransitive
To perform death growl vocals.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A deep, rumbling, threatening sound made in the throat by an animal.
Used this way, growl is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A gruff or angry utterance (suggestive of the growling of an animal).
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- whineverb
- adobenoun
- notificationnoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.