litter
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Fuller's earth, clay pellets, wood chips, or other similar loose absorbent materials used for the waste of pet animals.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
literSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlɪtɚ
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
uncountable
Fuller's earth, clay pellets, wood chips, or other similar loose absorbent materials used for the waste of pet animals.
Material used to provide a bed for animals
uncountable
Waste or debris, originally any mess but now particularly trash left or thrown on the ground.
countablecollective
The whole group of live young born at the same time, typically in reference to mammals or (figurative, derogatory) unpleasant people or objects.
uncountable
Animal bedding together with its dung.
uncountable
The layer of fallen leaves and other loose organic material on the ground in a forest.
verb
intransitive
To drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles).
transitive
To scatter carelessly about.
transitive
To strew (a place) with scattered articles.
intransitive
To produce a litter of young.
Give birth to a litter of animals
transitive
To supply (cattle etc.) with litter; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Fuller's earth, clay pellets, wood chips, or other similar loose absorbent materials used for the waste of pet animals.
Used this way, litter 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 litter
- “Please do not litter; use the trash can provided.”
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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.