kitten

B1 Topic:Animals

US /ˈkɪt.n̩/ See IPA manual

Freq #8372

Meanings

1

noun
A young cat.

Everyone loves kittens.
2

verb
To give birth to kittens.

Our cat kittened again this year.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a young cat. kitty

Word family

Forms kittenedkitteningkittens

Derived forms bobkittene-kittenkitkitten-heartedkittenballkittendomkittenhoodkittenishkittenlesskittenlikekittennesskittenship

Etymology

From Middle English kitoun, kytton, kyton, keton (“kitten”), of obscure origin. Seemingly from, and usually explained as being from, unattested Anglo-Norman *kitoun, *ketun (compare Old French chitoun, cheton, chaton (“kitten”), diminutive of cat, chat (“cat”)); whence Modern French chaton (“kitten”). Similar words of Germanic origin may have reinforced this word; compare English kitling (“kit, kitten”), Low German Kitten (“kitten”), Icelandic kettlingur (“kitten”), Middle English chitte ("whelp, pup", see chit). The idea that kitoun, rather than being of Anglo-Norman origin, was in fact a pur…

kitoun Middle English *kitoun xno

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Animals

External links

# kitten

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈkɪt.n̩/
**Frequency rank:** 8372

## Meanings
1. A young cat.
2. To give birth to kittens.

## Examples
- Everyone loves kittens.
- Our cat kittened again this year.

## Derived Forms
- bobkitten
- e-kitten
- kit
- kitten-hearted
- kittenball
- kittendom
- kittenhood
- kittenish
- kittenless
- kittenlike
- kittenness
- kittenship

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: kitoun
- Root: *kitoun

## Etymology
From Middle English kitoun, kytton, kyton, keton (“kitten”), of obscure origin. Seemingly from, and usually explained as being from, unattested Anglo-Norman *kitoun, *ketun (compare Old French chitoun, cheton, chaton (“kitten”), diminutive of cat, chat (“cat”)); whence Modern French chaton (“kitten”). Similar words of Germanic origin may have reinforced this word; compare English kitling (“kit, kitten”), Low German Kitten (“kitten”), Icelandic kettlingur (“kitten”), Middle English chitte ("whelp, pup", see chit). The idea that kitoun, rather than being of Anglo-Norman origin, was in fact a pur…

## Topics
- Animals

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