ENGLISH
REFERENCE

mouth

n. countable
A1 Beginner Oxford US //ˈmaʊθ// mouth Archaic General-service Slang

n. the opening on your face that you use for eating, drinking, and speaking.

n. the external opening in the head of a vertebrate, through which food is taken in and from which sounds are emitted.


SIMPLE

Open your mouth.

CONTEXTUAL

He put a spoonful of soup into his mouth.

COMPLEX

Words tumbled from her mouth before she had a chance to consider their impact on the tense atmosphere of the room.

Synonyms
Origin

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 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 [script needed] (mēni, “chin”). The verb is from Middle English mouthen, from the noun.

Idioms37 entries

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