growl

CEFRC1

/ˈɡɹaʊ̯l/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To make a low angry sound.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    A similar sound made by a human.

Examples

  • The creature continued to do that gurgling growl.

  • Did you just growl at me?

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
4

Also pronounced

  • /ˈɡɹæʊ̯l/

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meaning

  1. The rumbling sound made by a human's hungry stomach.

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A deep, rumbling, threatening sound made in the throat by an animal.

  2. An aggressive grumbling.

More examples

In context

  • Tom's stomach began to growl.

  • The dog growled at me as I walked past.

  • The old man growled his displeasure at the postman.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The angry dog began to blank loudly at the stranger near the fence.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

From Middle English groulen, grollen, gurlen (“of the bowels: to growl, rumble”), either possibly from Old French groler (variant of croler (“to be agitated, shake”)), grouler, grouller (“to growl, grumble”), from Frankish *grullen, *gruljan or from Old English gryllan, both from Proto-Germanic *gruljaną (“to make a sound; to growl, grumble, rumble”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to make a noise; to mumble, murmur; to rattle; to grind; to rub, stroke”), probably ultimately imitative. The word is cognate with Middle Dutch grollen (“to make a noise; to croak, grumble, murmur; to be angry”) (modern Dutch grollen (“to grumble”)), German grollen (“to rumble; to be angry, bear ill will”), Ol...