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PlainSpell

mouse

/maʊs/noun, verb

mouse is spelled M-O-U-S-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, mouse means “Any mammal of the many rodent families (especially Muridae) that have a small body and a long tail” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mouse is mice or mouses.

How many letters and syllables are in mouse?

Letters5: M-O-U-S-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing20 times per million words; the 4,224th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is mouse?

Mouse appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce mouse?

  • US /maʊs/
  • Canada /mʌʊs/

As a verb (“To move cautiously or furtively, in the manner of a mouse…”): /maʊs/, /maʊz/, /mʌʊs/.

Mouse has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-a_mouse.ogg, En-us-mouse.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with mouse?

4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as mouse from its last stressed vowel (/aʊs/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of mouse

  • mice plural
  • mouses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • mousing participle, present
  • moused participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does mouse mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Any mammal of the many rodent families (especially Muridae) that have a small body and a long tail.

    Near-synonyms: murine, murid, vole (all parasynonymous with this broad sense)

  2. 2

    Such a rodent that is of the genus Mus.

  3. 3

    A quiet or shy person.

    She's probably hiding in her room, she always does when we have company. She's our little mouse.

  4. 4

    obsoleteA familiar term of endearment.

  5. 5

    An input device that is moved over a pad or other flat surface to produce a corresponding movement of a pointer on a graphical display.

    My mouse needs new batteries.

  6. 6

    An on-screen pointer controlled by a mouse device.

    Move the mouse over the icon.

  7. 7

    A facial hematoma or black eye.

  8. 8

    A turn or lashing of spun yarn or small stuff, or a metallic clasp or fastening, uniting the point and shank of a hook to prevent its unhooking or straightening out.

verb

  1. 1

    To move cautiously or furtively, in the manner of a mouse (the rodent) (frequently used in the phrasal verb to mouse around).

  2. 2

    To hunt or catch mice (the rodents), usually of cats.

  3. 3

    To close the mouth of a hook by a careful binding of marline or wire.

    Captain Higgins moused the hook with a bit of marline to prevent the block beckets from falling out under slack.

  4. 4

    To navigate by means of a computer mouse.

  5. 5

    obsoleteTo tear, as a cat devours a mouse.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate mouse?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of mouse: mks.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Mouse in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsouris (rodent of the genus Mus), oeil au beurre noir, œil au beurre noir (black eye), fureter (to mouse around), muloter (to catch mice)
GermanMaus, Muus (rodent of the genus Mus), mausen (to mouse around), graue Maus (shy person), Computermaus, Rechnermaus (computing: input device)
Portugueserato, camundongo (rodent of the genus Mus), tímido (shy person), mouse (computing: input device)
Spanishratón, laucha, pericote (rodent of the genus Mus), mouse (maus) (computing: input device)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does mouse come from?

Inherited from Middle English mous, from Old English mūs, from Proto-West Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Indo-European *múHs.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after mouse