# kitten

Pronunciation: say "KIT-n" /ˈkɪtn̩/

## Noun

1. A young cat, especially one not yet sexually mature at around seven months of age.
   - Simple: A baby cat that has not grown up yet.
   - _The kitten mewed loudly until its mother returned to the basket._
   - _Three kittens slept in a heap near the warm radiator._
3. A young rabbit, rat, hedgehog, squirrel, fox, beaver, badger, or similar small mammal.
   - Simple: A baby rabbit, rat, fox, or other small animal.
   - _Each spring the red squirrel raises a kitten high in the old oak._
   - _The newborn rabbit kittens were blind and hairless for their first days._
4. An affectionate term used to address someone, especially a woman one feels fondly toward. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A loving name for someone, especially a woman.
   - _Goodnight, kitten. I'll see you in the morning._
   - _He called her kitten whenever she was feeling low._
5. A girlfriend, the woman someone is dating or romantically involved with. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A girlfriend, or a woman someone is dating.
   - _He spent the whole evening texting his kitten instead of talking to us._
   - _She became his kitten shortly after they met at college._
6. A moth of the genus Furcula, a group of small notodontid moths closely related to the puss moths.
   - Simple: A type of small moth in the group called Furcula.
   - _The collector pinned a freshly caught kitten beside the larger puss moth._
   - _Kittens are most active on warm summer nights near willows and poplars._

## Verb

2. To give birth to young cats.
   - Simple: To give birth to baby cats.
   - _Most barn cats kitten in early spring when prey is plentiful._
   - _The queen kittened four kits in the warm closet overnight._

## Origin

From Middle English kitoun (also kytton, keton), of obscure origin. It is usually explained as coming from an unattested Anglo-Norman *kitoun, compare Old French chitoun, chaton ("kitten"), a diminutive of chat ("cat"), giving Modern French chaton. Similar Germanic words such as English kitling, Low German Kitten and Icelandic kettlingur may have reinforced it, though a purely Germanic derivation is etymologically problematic and cannot be entirely ruled out.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/kitten (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).