Kitten

How to spell kitten

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce kitten

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does kitten mean?

1. nounA young or baby cat.

Kitten in a sentence

• The rescue centre had one ginger kitten left for adoption.

• She fed the tiny kitten with a small dropper every few hours.

Where does kitten come from?

Language of origin: French

The word kitten comes into English in the late 1300s from the Anglo-Norman and Old French word chitoun or cheton, a regional form of chaton, meaning a young cat. That in turn was a diminutive of chat, the French word for cat, which traces back to the Late Latin cattus. The English spelling settled with a doubled t and a soft k sound, and the older form survives in the affectionate clipping kit. The same chat root also gives us related words like chatte in French and connects to the wider European family of words for the domestic cat. Because the spelling is short and matches its sound closely, kitten has stayed remarkably stable for centuries.

How the word is built

• kit (from Old French chitoun, young cat)
• -en (diminutive)