Word.ws English Dictionary

howlers

howlers is the plural of howler.

Meaning of howler

Noun

howler (plural howlers)

  1. That which howls, especially an animal such as a wolf or a howler monkey.
  2. (historical) A person hired to howl in mourning at a funeral.
  3. (slang) A painfully obvious mistake.
    • Given what we know about cognitive psychology, utility maximization is a ludicrous concept; equilibrium pretty foolish outside of financial markets; perfect competition a howler for most industries.1993, Paul Krugman, How I Work, October 1 1993, in: Paul Krugman, Arguing with Zombies, 2020, p. 402
  4. (slang) A hilarious joke.
  5. (slang) A bitterly cold day.
  6. A person who expresses aggression openly in the form of threats.
    • Although their behavior does not have the same impact as hunters, howlers nevertheless distract the public figure and compel security and law enforcement […]2008, J. Reid Meloy, Lorraine Sheridan, Jens Hoffmann, Stalking, Threatening, and Attacking Public Figures, page 121

See all 12 meanings of howler

Phrases with howlers

Questions about howlers

What is howlers the plural of?
Howlers is the plural of howler.

Words near howlers in the dictionary

  1. howled on
  2. howled out
  3. howler
  4. howler monkey
  5. howler monkeys
  6. howlers
  7. Howles
  8. howlest
  9. howlet
  10. howleth
  11. howlets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: howlers (page history and authors); howler (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “howlers.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/howlers. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.