mouth

/maʊθ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Canada/mʌʊθ/

mouth noun: the front opening of a creature through which food is ingested. Also the ellipsis of mouth the words.

Image: Duncan Kenneth Winter, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

mouth (plural mouths)

The front opening of a creature through which food is ingested.
- "Open your mouth and say 'aah'," directed the doctor.
- She kissed him on the mouth.
The end of a river out of which water flows into a sea or other large body of water; or the end of a tributary out of which water flows into a larger river.
- The mouth of the river is a good place to go birdwatching in spring and autumn.
- The Yalu is mainly useful in floating down immense rafts of wood, which find their way from the town of Antung, at the mouth of the river, to the port of Newchwang, and to Chefoo and Tientsin for the provinces of Shantung and Chihli.1895 May, John Ross, “Manchuria”, in The Scottish Geographical Magazine, volume XI, number V, Edinburgh: Royal Scottish Geographical Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 220–221
Synonyms:

outlet
An outlet, aperture or orifice.
- But come, Lady, we are too near the mouth of the cavern; let us seek its inmost recesses.1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
- ‘It was called the wickedest street in London and the entrance was just here. I imagine the mouth of the road lay between this lamp standard and the second from the next down there.’1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
(slang) A loud or overly talkative person.
- My kid sister is a real mouth; she never shuts up.
(slang) A gossip.
- Siobhán, you know Donna's a mouth.2012, Stuart Carolan, 40:45 from the start, in Love/Hate, season 3, episode 3, spoken by Tommy Daly (Killian Scott)
The crosspiece of a bridle bit, which enters the mouth of an animal.
(obsolete) A principal speaker; one who utters the common opinion; a mouthpiece.
- Every coffeehouse has some particular statesman belonging to it, who is the mouth of the street where he lives.1712 June 22 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, June 12, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 403; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New...
(obsolete) Speech; language; testimony.
- that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 18:16
(obsolete) A wry face; a grimace; a mow.
- Counterfeit sad looks, / Make mouths upon me when I turn my back.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First...

Verb

mouth (third-person singular simple present mouths, present participle mouthing, simple past and past participle mouthed)

(transitive) To speak; to utter.
- He mouthed his opinions on the subject at the meeting.
- How can you get up there and mouth such clichés?
(transitive) To represent (words or sounds) by making the actions of speech, but silently, without producing sound; to frame.
- The prompter mouthed the words to the actor, who had forgotten them.
- She mouthed a warning to me as the teacher entered the room.
(intransitive, transitive) To move the mouth, with or without sound; to form (air or words) with the mouth, with or without sound.
- But words are nothing to the misbelieving -- mere air mouthed into a sound.1886, James Hogg, Polmood series, page 51
- There was also a close temporal contiguity between "smiling" or other "emotional" grimaces and mouthing and tonguing movements, so that it was often difficult to distinguish between mouthing and smiling.1987, Peter H. Wolff, The Development of Behavioral States and the Expression of Emotions in Early Infancy, page 15
(ambitransitive) To utter with a voice that is overly loud or swelling.
- Those who endeavor to become eloquent by mere imitation of some celebrated model—an actor for instance—often attempt to gain this quality by altering their voice in an unnatural manner. Such a process never produces any thing but mouthing.1846, Erasmus Darwin North, Practical Speaking: As Taught in Yale College, page 123
- This view of voice cultivation excludes all mouthing and ranting which have been thought to be necessary incidents of voice culture.1902, George Andrew Lewis, The Practical treatment of stammering and stuttering, page 195
To exit at a mouth (such as a river mouth)
- In this part of the address the position of the principal hanging-valleys was indicated , and it was pointed out that there were two sets, namely those which mouthed into valleys that had been deepened in softer rocks, and those which mouthed into portions of main valleys that had been deepened...1906, Philosophical Magazine, page 96
- Suddenly an avalanche of stones turned loose right down a ravine and mouthed out on the road, stones large enough to knock a horse down, or larger, and a plenty of them to do a fair job on a large group.1999, T. Walter Middleton, Qualla: Home of the Middle Cherokee Settlement, page 39
(transitive) To pick up or handle with the lips or mouth, but not chew or swallow.
- The fish mouthed the lure, but didn't bite.
- She alighted and mouthed over several within a small space and a short time; and these buds were not at the bottom of the hedge; nor was she searching for a nest-site.1887 September, Charles Robson, “Natural History Jottings: On Wasps, chiefly”, in Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, John Eller Taylor, editors, Hardwicke's Science-gossip, number 273, page 210
To take into the mouth; to seize or grind with the mouth or teeth; to chew; to devour.
- Sometimes I ate food that the rats had already mouthed over; picking away the edges where they had been eating and using the remainder; not with any good grace, not without qualms; but because I had nothing else to eat.1938, Jack Common, Seven Shifts, page 62
- Each contained a long, wide, solid oak table around which all who could find a space the width of his body would mouth his brown-bag grub from home.1998, Marvin K. Rubin, Word of Mouth: A Manhattan Dentist Tells All-- (well, Almost), page 77
To form or cleanse with the mouth; to lick, as a bear licks her cub.
- They were sucking off whatever adhered to the floating stems and leaves of the plants. They went from plant to plant and mouthed over each branch from base to tip until the whole plant had been gone over.1915, Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries - Volume 33, page 224
- Meanwhile she, and the male, mouthed over the inner surface of pot until it was as clean as could be.1937, Aquarium Journal - Volume 10, Issue 5, page 7
To carry in the mouth.
- This transfer system continues until the young are free-swimming, which may be for another 3 or 4 days. Each time they are moved to a new pit, they are mouthed over and spat into their new crèche.1953, Clifford Walter Emmens, Keeping and Breeding Aquarium Fishes, page 154
(obsolete) To make mouths at
- He drew the cork from his bottle..and mouthed at his companions even while he bowed to them.1827, Benjamin Disraeli, Vivian Grey
- Meanwhile, the tyrant, with untimely wit And mouthing face, derides the small one's moan, Who, all lamenting for his loss, doth sit,1854, Thomas Hood, “The Irish Schoolmaster”, in Poems of Thomas Hood, volume 2, page 40
To form a mouth or opening in.
- The front end of the barrel has to be mouthed out conically, so that the various centre points may fit it.1773, Paul. N. Hasluck, “Lathe-Making For Amateurs”, in Amateur work, illustrated - Volume 1, page 426
- The front collar must be mouthed out as shown, to take the second cone on the mandrel.1882, Paul Nooncree Hasluck, The Metal Turner's Handbook, page 76
(sheep husbandry) To examine the teeth of.
- Either at the shipping point or as they leave the summer range, the older ewes are “mouthed out.” That is, their mouths are examined to see if their teeth are good for another year.1938, Byron Hunter, Harry W. Pearson, Alonzo Frederick Vass, Type of Farming and Ranching Areas in Wyoming, page 96
- No information could be found on the relationship between the productivity of ewes and the states of their mouths. While there is no doubt that the practice of “mouthing" ewes is founded on experience, the traditional standards may require modification since the adoption almost exclusively of...1957, The New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology, page 587

Also used as

mouth is also the ellipsis of mouth the words.

mouth meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

mouth in Hindi

the opening of a creature through which food is ingested — see also lip, face: मुँह mũh, मुख mukh

mouth in Tamil

the opening of a creature through which food is ingested — see also lip, face: வாய் vāy

mouth in Marathi

the opening of a creature through which food is ingested — see also lip, face: मुख mukh, तोंड toṇḍa

mouth in Urdu

the opening of a creature through which food is ingested — see also lip, face: مُن٘ہ mũh, مُکھ mukh

More languagesFewer languages

mouth in Bengali: মুখ mukh, মোহানা mōhana
mouth in Telugu: నోరు nōru
mouth in Malayalam: വായ vāya
mouth in Kannada: ಬಾಯ್ bāy, ಬಾಯಿ bāyi
mouth in Punjabi: ਮੁਖ mukh, ਮੂੰਹ mū̃h, مُکھ mukh, مُون٘ہ mūṉh
mouth in Gujarati: મુખ mukh, મોં mõ
mouth in Odia: ମୁଖ mukha
mouth in Sanskrit: आस् ās, मुख mukha, च्युप cyupa
mouth in Sinhala: කට kaṭa
mouth in Assamese: মুখ mukh
mouth in Nepali: मुख mukh
mouth in Pashto: خوله xwlë
mouth in Tagalog: bibig, bunganga
mouth in Arabic: فَم fam, بق buʔʔ, حلج ḥalj, بوز būz
mouth in Malay: mulut, muara
mouth in Indonesian: mulut, muara
mouth in Persian: دَهَان dahān, دَهان dahân, دَهَن dahan, دَهانِه dahâne
mouth in Thai: ปาก bpàak
mouth in Vietnamese: miệng, mồm
mouth in Myanmar: ပါးစပ် pa:cap, မြစ်ပေါက် mracpauk, အဝ a.wa.
Sindhi: مک mukhu, ٻُوٿُ ḇūthu
Dhivehi: އަނގަ aⁿga
Dzongkha: ཁ kha

Examples of mouth in a sentence

They spread apart after they were out of the mouth of the harbour and each one headed for the part of the ocean where he hoped to find fish.1952 September 1, Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 28:
But why give a tunnel mouth any decoration whatsoever?2020 August 26, Tim Dunn, “Great railway bores of our time!”, in Rail, page 42:
One was of a face repeatedly mouthing the vowel sound eee, the other was of a face repeatedly mouthing the vowel sound ahhh.2010, Jan Faull, Jennifer McLean Oliver, Amazing Minds:
It should be explained that lip patterns are generally not the same as patterns which would be made by 'mouthing' words.2016, Wayne Morris, Theology without Words: Theology in the Deaf Community:

All 40 example sentences with mouth

Synonyms of mouth

14 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of mouth

Forms of mouth

Noun
plural	mouths
Verb
third-person singular present	mouths
present participle	mouthing
past participle	mouthed
past	mouthed
alternative form	mouthe

Past tense of mouth: mouthed

Plural of mouth: mouths

Origin of mouth

From Middle English mouth, from Old English mūþ, from Proto-West Germanic *munþ, from Proto-Germanic *munþaz (“mouth”), from Proto-Indo-European *ment- (“to chew; jaw, mouth”). Cognate with Scots mooth (“mouth”), North Frisian mös, müs, Mür (“mouth”), West Frisian mûn (“mouth”), Dutch mond (“mouth”), muide (“river mouth”) and mui (“riptide”), German Mund (“mouth”), Luxembourgish Mond (“mouth”), Danish mund (“mouth”), Faroese muður, munnur (“mouth”), Icelandic munnur (“mouth”), Swedish mun (“mouth”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk munn (“mouth”), Gothic 𐌼𐌿𐌽𐌸𐍃 (munþs, “mouth”), Latin mentum (“chin”) and mandō (“to chew”), Ancient Greek μάσταξ (mástax, “jaws, mouth”) and μασάομαι (masáomai, “to chew”), Albanian mjekër (“chin, beard”), Welsh mant (“jawbone”), Hittite 𒈨𒂊𒉌𒄿 (me-e-ni-i /⁠mēni⁠/, “face, cheek”). The verb is from Middle English mouthen, from the noun.

Words formed from mouth

Phrases with mouth

161 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with mouth

Questions about mouth

What does mouth mean?: Mouth means the front opening of a creature through which food is ingested.
What is mouth in Hindi?: Mouth in Hindi is मुँह (mũh), मुख (mukh). See Mouth meaning in Hindi.
How do you use mouth in a sentence?: They spread apart after they were out of the mouth of the harbour and each one headed for the part of the ocean where he hoped to find fish.
What part of speech is mouth?: Mouth can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce mouth?: Mouth is pronounced /maʊθ/.
What is the plural of mouth?: The plural of mouth is mouths.

Words near mouth in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: mouth (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-mouth.ogg, en-us-mouth.ogg.

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