howl
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The protracted, mournful cry of a dog, wolf or other canid.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
howlIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhaʊl
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
The protracted, mournful cry of a dog, wolf or other canid; also of other animals.
A prolonged cry of distress or anguish; a wail.
The long plaintive cry of a hound or a wolf
Any similar sound.
verb
To utter a loud, protracted, mournful sound or cry, as dogs and wolves often do.
To utter a sound expressive of pain or distress; to cry aloud and mournfully; to lament; to wail.
To make a noise resembling the cry of a wild beast.
To utter with outcry.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The protracted, mournful cry of a dog, wolf or other canid; also of other animals.
Used this way, howl is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Nearby words
- ululation , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use howl
- “The wind was howling in the trees.”verb
- “The coyotes were howling in the desert.”verb
- “The howl of the wind made him restless.”noun
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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 long loud emotional utterance.
A joke that seems extremely funny.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Monkey of tropical South American forests having a loud howling cry.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.