Word.ws English Dictionary

prusten

/ˈpɹuːst(ə)n/

prusten noun: a sound made by tigers and snow leopards without the intent to threaten, producing a breathy snort by blowing through the nostrils whilst the mouth is closed — a low-frequency equivalent of the purring found in domestic cats.

Noun

prusten (uncountable)

  1. A sound made by tigers and snow leopards without the intent to threaten, producing a breathy snort by blowing through the nostrils whilst the mouth is closed — a low-frequency equivalent of the purring found in domestic cats.
    • He made a sound, a snort from his nostrils. I pricked up my ears. He did it a second time. I was astonished. Prusten?2001, Yann Martel, chapter 57, in Life of Pi, Canongate, published 2003, →ISBN, page 163
    • Prusten is the quietest of tiger calls, a puff through the nose to express friendliness and harmless intentions.ibidem, pages 163–164
    Synonyms:
    chuff, chuffle

Synonyms of prusten

Origin of prusten

From the German verb prusten (“to sneeze, to snort”).

Questions about prusten

What does prusten mean?
Prusten means a sound made by tigers and snow leopards without the intent to threaten, producing a breathy snort by blowing through the nostrils whilst the mouth is closed — a low-frequency equivalent of the purring found in domestic cats.
What part of speech is prusten?
Prusten is a noun.
How do you pronounce prusten?
Prusten is pronounced /ˈpɹuːst(ə)n/.

Words near prusten in the dictionary

  1. Prusso-
  2. Prussophile
  3. Prussophiles
  4. Prussophobic
  5. Prust
  6. prusten
  7. PRUSVI
  8. Pruszków
  9. Prut
  10. pruta
  11. prutah

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prusten (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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