Did you know?

Click any word in a definition or example to find the entry for that word

howl

 - definition
Close

What are red words?

90% of the time, speakers of English use just 7,500 words in speech and writing. These words appear in red, and are graded with stars. One-star words are frequent, two-star words are more frequent, and three-star words are the most frequent.

Close

Thesaurus

The thesaurus of synonyms and related words is fully integrated into the dictionary entries. Click on the T button in an entry to review the synonyms and related words for that meaning.

more
verb British English pronunciation: howl /haʊl/ 
Word Forms
Close
present tense
I/you/we/theyhowl
he/she/ithowls
present participlehowling
past tensehowled
past participlehowled
  1. 2
    [intransitive] to cry very loudly in pain, anger, or sadness

    The children all started howling.

  2. 3
    [intransitive] if the wind howls, it blows with a long loud sound

    A bitter wind howled through the empty streets.

  3. 4
    [intransitive] to laugh very loudly
    howl with:

    By now the audience were howling with laughter.

  4. 5
    [transitive] to say something in a loud angry voice

    Ray jumped up and started howling obscenities at the referee.

phrasal verbs

vocal fry

a speech habit in which a speaker lowers their voice at the end of a sentence

BuzzWord Article

Word of the Day Word of the Day

glottal stop

a sound made by stopping air as it passes through your throat. In some varieties of spoken...

Open Dictionary

conflict mineral

a mineral which is mined in a place where there is armed conflict, and sold to help pay for weapons

add a word

Blog

A must for anyone with an interest in the changing face of language. The Macmillan Dictionary blog explores English as it is spoken around the world today.

global English and language change from our blog