Meow

Meow normalized.opus 

A cat meowing.

A cat meowing.

A meow or miaow is a sound made by cats. There are different types of meows, such as ones that mean the same thing as "hello," ones that ask for food, or ones that let people know when they are annoyed, among other things.

The meow is used by kittens to their mother. It is a plea for attention, and experts think pet cats use it because they often need owners to do things for them. Adult cats do not meow to other cats.^[1]

Different languages have different ways of spelling "meow." For example, English has been using the meow spelling since 1842 and before that, it used the miaow, miau, or meaw spellings.^[2] Spanish and German still use the miau spelling while French uses the miaou spelling.^[3]

Cats in Ancient Egypt were called "Mau".