Peep

How to spell peep

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce peep

What does peep mean?

1. verbTo look quickly or secretly, often through a small gap or opening.
2. nounA short, high, faint sound, such as that made by a young bird or a small device.

Peep in a sentence

• verb

  She liked to peep through the curtains before opening the door.

• noun

  The smoke alarm gave a faint peep when its battery ran low.

• verb

  The children would peep over the fence to watch the builders.

• noun

  Not a peep came from the office while everyone concentrated.

Where does peep come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Peep is an imitative word, meaning its sound mimics the thing it names. The 'chirp' sense, recorded in English from the late 1300s, echoes the faint, high note of a young bird or chick; similar copycat words exist across many European languages, all built on a thin, piping 'pee' sound. The 'glance furtively' sense appeared a little later in the 1400s and is thought to be a playful variant of 'peek', perhaps influenced by the idea of poking a small opening through which to look. Because the word is imitative rather than borrowed, its spelling is wonderfully regular: the long 'ee' simply mirrors the drawn-out sound, which is why adults rarely struggle with it. Over the centuries the noun developed everyday phrases such as 'a peep of dawn' for the first thin light, and the playful modern slang 'peeps' for one's friends or people, keeping the lively, informal flavour the word has always had.

How the word is built

• peep (imitative root) used as both verb and noun; no prefix or suffix