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A meow or miaow is a cat vocalization. ''Meows'' may have diverse tones in terms of their
sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...
, and what is heard can vary from being chattered to calls, murmurs, and whispers. Adult cats rarely meow to each other. Thus, an adult cat meowing to
human being Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, an ...
s is generally considered a post-domestication extension of meowing by
kitten A kitten is a juvenile cat. After being born, kittens display primary altriciality and are totally dependent on their mothers for survival. They normally do not open their eyes for seven to ten days. After about two weeks, kittens develop qu ...
s: a call for attention. Felines usually communicate with each other via their shared
sense of smell The sense of smell, or olfaction, is the special sense through which smells (or odors) are perceived. The sense of smell has many functions, including detecting desirable foods, hazards, and pheromones, and plays a role in taste. In humans, it ...
, yet with people they often make verbal cues around behavior, such as having a specific sound indicate a desire to go outside. A mew is a high-pitched meow often produced by kittens. It is apparently used to solicit attention from the kitten's mother, and adult cats may use it as well. The mew is similar to what is described in Brown et al. 1978 as an isolation call. By around three to four weeks of age kittens do not mew when at least one littermate is present, and at four to five months of age kittens stop mewing altogether.


Background and biological details

A cat's meow can be assertive, plaintive, friendly, bold, welcoming, attention-soliciting, demanding, or complaining. It can even be silent, where the cat opens its
mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on t ...
but does not vocalize. Just as humans may verbalize exhaustively when they are happy, so can cats. According to ''
The Purrington Post Images and videos of domestic cats make up some of the most viewed content on the World Wide Web, particularly image macros in the form of lolcats. ThoughtCatalog has described cats as the "unofficial mascot of the Internet". The subject ha ...
'', a chatty cat is likely happy too. Meowing fundamentally evolves as a learned behavior. Formerly feral cats meow much less often than felines accustomed to human interaction their entire lives. Particularly attached cats will meow in an imitative and reflective fashion in response to
human communication Human communication, or anthroposemiotics, is a field of study dedicated to understanding how humans communicate. Humans ability to communicate with one another would not be possible without an understanding of what we are referencing or think ...
that involves a back-and-forth process between the two beings, which can involve mutual emotional connection.


Etymology

In
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
, the spelling ''meow'' was first used in 1842. Before that, the word could be spelled ''miaow'', ''miau'', or ''meaw''. Of any variant, the earliest attestation of a cat's cry in
Early Modern English Early Modern English or Early New English (sometimes abbreviated EModE, EMnE, or ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middl ...
is from the 1630s.


See also

*
Cat communication Cats need to communicate with each other for bonding, and relating with each other; they need to collaborate, play, and share resources. When they communicate with people, they do so to get what they need or want, such as food, affection, or pl ...
*
Cross-linguistic onomatopoeias Because of the nature of onomatopoeia, there are many words which show a similar pronunciation in the languages of the world. The following is a list of some conventional examples: Human sounds Consuming food or drink Bodily functions and ...
ยง Mammal sounds *
Devocalization Devocalization (also known as ventriculocordectomy or vocal cordectomy and when performed on dogs is commonly known as debarking or bark softening) is a surgical procedure performed on dogs and cats, where tissue is removed from the animal's voca ...
*
Felinology Felinology is the study of cats.As noted in the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Veterinary MedicinCurriculum The term is of Latin-Greek origin and comes from the Latin word ' (of cats, feline) and the Greek ' (science). Felinology is concerned ...
*
List of animal sounds Certain words in the English language represent animal sounds: the noises and vocalizations of particular animals, especially noises used by animals for communication. The words can be used as verbs or interjections in addition to nouns, and ma ...
*
Miao (disambiguation) Miao may refer to: * Miao people, linguistically and culturally related group of people, recognized as such by the government of the People's Republic of China * Miao script or Pollard script, writing system used for Miao languages * Miao (Unicode ...


References

{{Authority control Animal sounds Cat behavior Onomatopoeia