Paws

How to spell paws

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce paws

What does paws mean?

1. nounThe clawed or padded feet of an animal such as a cat, dog or bear.
2. verbTo scrape, touch or scratch at something with a paw, as an animal does.

Paws in a sentence

• noun

  The puppy left muddy paws all over the kitchen floor.

• verb

  The dog paws at the back door whenever it wants to go out.

• noun

  The vet checked the cat's paws for thorns and cuts.

• verb

  The kitten paws playfully at the ball of wool.

Where does paws come from?

Language of origin: French

The singular paw came into English in the 1300s from Old French 'poue' or 'powe', meaning the foot of an animal, and that French word is widely believed to trace back to a Frankish or broader Germanic source related to words for a fist or a grasping foot. The exact pre-French root is uncertain, which is why dictionaries hedge on its deepest origin. The 'w' in the spelling preserves the older French and Middle English forms, even though modern pronunciation simply rhymes with 'cause'. Adding the plural or verb 's' gives 'paws', a form that sounds identical to 'pause', 'pores' and (in non-rhotic British speech) 'pours', which is exactly the spelling trap. Keeping the animal sense in mind, four feet on a creature, helps fix the 'paw' core before the 's' is added.

How the word is built

• paw (animal foot)
• -s (plural / third-person verb ending)

Words that sound like paws

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• pause: A temporary stop or interval in action, speech, or sound.