kitten
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A young cat.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kituhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɪtən
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 young cat, especially before sexual maturity (reached at about seven months).
Young domestic cat
A young rabbit, rat, hedgehog, squirrel, fox, beaver, badger, etc.
colloquial
A term of endearment, especially for a woman.
colloquialby extension
A girlfriend.
verb
transitiveintransitive
To give birth to kittens.
“Our cat kittened again this year.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A young cat, especially before sexual maturity (reached at about seven months).
Used this way, kitten is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use kitten
- “Our cat kittened again this year.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A plant of the genus Besseya having fluffy spikes of flowers.
Get very angry and fly into a rage.
A young woman who is thought to have sex appeal.
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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.