mouth
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The front opening of a creature through which food is ingested.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
mowthIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmaʊθ
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
anatomy
The front opening of a creature through which food is ingested.
anatomy
The opening through which food is taken in and vocalizations emerge
“He stuffed his mouth with candy.”
The point where a stream issues into a larger body of water
“New York is at the mouth of the Hudson.”
saddlery
The crosspiece of a bridle bit, which enters the mouth of an animal.
The end of a river out of which water flows into a sea or other large body of water; or the end of a tributary out of which water flows into a larger river.
An outlet, aperture or orifice.
verb
transitiveintransitive
To move the mouth, with or without sound; to form (air or words) with the mouth, with or without sound.
transitive
To speak; to utter.
Express in speech
Articulate silently; form words with the lips only
transitive
To represent (words or sounds) by making the actions of speech, but silently, without producing sound; to frame.
transitive
To pick up or handle with the lips or mouth, but not chew or swallow.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The front opening of a creature through which food is ingested.
Used this way, mouth is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Front / openingnoun
“He stuffed his mouth with candy.”
Point / endnoun
“New York is at the mouth of the Hudson.”
More ways to use mouth
- “New York is at the mouth of the Hudson.”noun
- “He stuffed his mouth with candy.”noun
- “The jar had a wide mouth.”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.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The quantity that can be held in the mouth.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner.
A small rectangular free-reed instrument having a row of free reeds set back in air holes and played by blowing into the desired hole.
An emergency procedure consisting of external cardiac massage and artificial respiration.
A hole (as in a ski mask) for the mouth.
A small rectangular free-reed instrument having a row of free reeds set back in air holes and played by blowing into the desired hole.
A small lyre-shaped musical instrument that is placed between the teeth and played by twanging a wire tongue while changing the shape of the mouth cavity.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A part that goes over or into the mouth of a person.
Small marine fish with black mouth and gill cavity.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.