moan
UK/məʊn//moʊn/
moan noun: a low, mournful cry of pain, sorrow or pleasure.
Noun
moan (plural moans)
- A low, mournful cry of pain, sorrow or pleasure.
- let out a deep moan
- We heard the distant moan of a stag in pain.
- A lament or sorrow.
- to make one's moan
- it shall be my daily grief and moan, that I am so dull, & do so little[…]But if when all is done that we can do, you will leave us nothing but our tears and moans for self-destroyers, the sin is yours, and the suffering shall be yours.1662, Richard Baxter, Now or never the holy, serious, diligent believer justified, encouraged, excited and directed, and the opposers and neglecters convinced by the light of Scripture and reason...
Verb
moan (third-person singular simple present moans, present participle moaning, simple past and past participle moaned)
- To complain about; to bemoan, to bewail; to mourn.
- Much did the Craven seeme to mone his case […].1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- Ye floods, ye woods, ye echoes, moan / My dear Columbo, dead and gone.1708, Matthew Prior, the Turtle and the Sparrow
- To grieve.
- To make a moan or similar sound.
- She moaned with pleasure and squirmed with delight from receiving oral sex.
- They shared a common dread that he would begin moaning.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 169
- To say in a moan, or with a moaning voice.
- ‘Please don't leave me,’ he moaned.
- To complain; to grumble.
- To distress (someone); to sadden.
- which infinitely moans me1626 February 1 (licensing date; Gregorian calendar), John Fletcher [et al.], “The Faire Maide of the Inne”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey...
- Synonyms:
- deject, aggrieve, attrist, begloom, begrieve, besorrow, grieve, pain, bring down, come down on
Adjective
moan (comparative more moan, superlative most moan)
- Of or pertaining to a moa.
moan meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
moan in Hindi
- a low cry of pain
- कराह karāh
moan in Tamil
- க்குரல், நோக்குரல், முனகல், புலம்பு, முனகு
moan in Marathi
- to moan
- कण्हणे kaṇhaṇe
moan in Urdu
- a low cry of pain
- کَراہ karāh
More languagesFewer languages
- moan in Bengali
- আর্তনাদ করা, গোঙানো, অভিযোগ করা
- moan in Telugu
- గోల gōla
- moan in Malayalam
- ഞരങ്ങുക, മുരളുക, വിലപിക്കുക
- moan in Kannada
- ನರಲ್, ನರಲು, ನರಳ್, ನರಳು
- moan in Arabic
- تَأَوَّهَ taʔawwaha
- moan in Indonesian
- mendesah
- moan in Persian
- ناله nâle, نالیدن nâlidan
- moan in Vietnamese
- rên rỉ
Examples of moan in a sentence
- Stan is a martyr to arthritis, Chris is a martyr to Stan's endless moaning about it.
- She was moaning for the entire duration of the advert break.
- He narks in my ear all day, moaning about his problems.
Synonyms of moan
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of moan
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | moans |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | moans |
| present participle | moaning |
| past participle | moaned |
| past | moaned |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | moanest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | moanedst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | moaneth |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more moan |
| superlative | most moan |
Origin of moan
From Middle English mone, mane, mān, (also as mene), from Old English *mān, *mǣn (“complaint; lamentation”), from Proto-West Germanic *mainu, from Proto-Germanic *mainō (“opinion; mind”). Cognate with Old Frisian mēne (“opinion”), Old High German meina (“opinion”). Old English *mān, *mǣn is inferred from Old English mǣnan (“to complain over; grieve; mourn”). More at mean.
From moa + -an.
Words formed from moan
Words that rhyme with moan
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- throne
- atone
- clone
- crone
- prone
- depone
- hone
- loan
- cologne
- condone
- disenthrone
- disown
- eau de cologne
- enthrone
- groan
- intone
- roan
- Sloan
- Sloane
- thrown
- unknown
- bemoan
- cobblestone
- Copplestone
- grown
- joan
- known
- none
- overgrown
- pension
- phone
- postpone
- redstone
- sone
- Stallone
- answer phone
- arthron
- beknown
- cauterizing stone
- compone
- crosne
- crown
- cuboidal bone
- cuttlefish bone
- Ediphone
- enzone
- flown
- Four Shire Stone
Questions about moan
- What does moan mean?
- Moan means a low, mournful cry of pain, sorrow or pleasure.
- What is moan in Hindi?
- Moan in Hindi is कराह (karāh). See Moan meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is moan?
- Moan can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce moan?
- Moan is pronounced /məʊn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of moan?
- The plural of moan is moans.
Words near moan in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: moan (page history and authors); moan (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); कण्हणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); Moan (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); గోల (Telugu) (page history and authors); moan (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); moan (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-moan.ogg.
Cite this entry: “moan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/moan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.