purring

verb

present participle of purr
as in whispering

Related Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for purring
  1. whispering
  2. chirping
  3. murmuring
  4. shouting
  5. gasping
  6. breathing
  7. speaking
  8. drawling
Verb
  • Hears the doctors whispering in the corner of the room about his decline.
    — Carly Tagen-Dye, PEOPLE, 25 June 2026
  • The stairs bear witness to feet, flitting up and down, a whispering flood of life that has carried us forth to this day.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 19 June 2026
Definition of whispering
Verb
  • The chirping incited a scuffle that led to four ejections and four suspensions.
    — Spencer Nusbaum, New York Times, 5 July 2026
  • Think your back yard can get buggy in the summer—with mosquitoes, flies, moths, wasps, bees, lightning bugs, crickets, and more swarming, buzzing, and chirping everywhere?
    — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 29 June 2026
Definition of chirping
Verb
  • Or at least squeezed in a solid couch nap with baseball/golf/soccer/primo history programming murmuring in the background.
    — Tyler Estep, AJC.com, 22 June 2026
  • Alejo listens carefully, occasionally offering a tissue or murmuring consolations.
    — Megan Greenwell, Bloomberg, 9 June 2026
Definition of murmuring
Verb
  • But just to their left stood a horde of pro-transgender activists, some wearing costumes and others partially unclothed, shouting curse words.
    — Jackson Thompson OutKick, FOXNews.com, 1 July 2026
  • An original call for service indicated that suspects pulled up to a CBS media vehicle and began shouting racial obscenities at a CBS cameraman who is Black, a law enforcement source said.
    — Tess Kenny, Chicago Tribune, 30 June 2026
Definition of shouting
Verb
  • Brooks also relished his role as a class clown, terrorizing his teachers and leaving his friends gasping with laughter.
    — Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic, 28 June 2026
  • Sometimes poetry leaves the cinema behind, gasping for breath.
    — David Denby, New Yorker, 21 June 2026
Definition of gasping
Verb
  • The abdomen may significantly protrude, pushing the diaphragm upward and making breathing more difficult.
    — Jennifer Borresen, USA Today, 3 July 2026
  • For some, the virus can attack the nervous system, causing permanent paralysis, breathing difficulties and death.
    — Melissa Rudy, FOXNews.com, 1 July 2026
Definition of breathing
Verb
  • Mamdani appeared to double down Tuesday, while speaking to reporters about the forthcoming heat wave.
    — Rachel Treisman, NPR, 3 July 2026
  • So, Galetto was delighted to learn that the first American pope would be speaking live and receiving an award less than two miles from his church, on the eve of the nation’s 250th birthday.
    — Danny Freeman, CNN Money, 3 July 2026
Definition of speaking
Verb
  • His drawling, winking charm is front and center, and his attraction to our heroine feels both genuine and even quite protective, but his violent streak is so blasé as to be unnerving.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 7 June 2026
  • Daniel Craig stars as Benoit Blanc, a Southern-drawling Hercule Poirot-style private detective who helps a wealthy family uncover the truth behind the death of their beloved patriarch (Christopher Plummer).
    — Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 7 Feb. 2026
Definition of drawling
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

purred
purring
purrs
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Purring.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/purring. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on purring

Nglish: Translation of purring for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
hangman letters and game
Hangman Lightning Round Figure out which word fits in the blanks.
See All