Cubs

How to spell cubs

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cubs

What does cubs mean?

1. nounThe young of certain meat-eating mammals such as bears, lions, foxes, or wolves.

Cubs in a sentence

• The lioness guarded her cubs closely at the den.

• Visitors crowded the zoo to see the new bear cubs.

Where does cubs come from?

Language of origin: Unknown

The singular 'cub' first appears in English in the 1500s, originally describing the young of the fox before it broadened to cover the offspring of bears, lions, wolves, and other carnivores. Its precise origin is genuinely uncertain, which is unusual for such an old word; one widely cited possibility links it to the Old Irish cuib, meaning a whelp or young dog, though the trail is not firm. By the 1600s it was being used figuratively for an awkward, unpolished youth, a sense that survives in expressions like 'cub reporter' for a trainee journalist. The plural simply adds -s, and because the word is short and phonetic the spelling has stayed remarkably stable across the centuries. Despite the hazy roots, the spelling itself has never posed much of a trap.

How the word is built

• cub (young animal)
• -s (plural)