cooing

verb

present participle of coo
as in whispering

Related Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for cooing
  1. whispering
  2. sighing
  3. hissing
  4. murmuring
Verb
  • As the drama of the mistrial motion unfolded, the crowd in the courtroom began whispering.
    — Rebecca Cohen, NBC news, 24 Aug. 2026
  • Ranchers began whispering about eminent domain, turning a debate over federal policy into something deeply personal.
    — Nicole Sganga, CBS News, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of whispering
Verb
  • The soundtrack—by the frequent Hans Zimmer collaborator David Fleming—is a delight, a polyphonic mood board of ghost-clangs, spooky bassoons, lyrical electro-motifs, and sighing sea themes.
    — James Parker, The Atlantic, 20 July 2026
  • The internet may be full of people who want to outlaw leaf blowers, but misophonic triggers tend to share a bodily quality, an aurally traceable culprit such as a person crunching or sighing.
    — Sloane Crosley, New Yorker, 8 June 2026
Definition of sighing
Verb
  • But delivering that level of craft in a high-octane room where the hissing espresso machine competes with the bassline?
    — Carly Boers, Chicago Tribune, 18 Aug. 2026
  • And in 2022, Japanese researchers turned a Madagascar hissing cockroach into a cyborg for search-and-rescue missions using a similar, though more sophisticated, approach.
    — ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 3 Aug. 2026
Definition of hissing
Verb
  • Or at least squeezed in a solid couch nap with baseball/golf/soccer/primo history programming murmuring in the background.
    — Tyler Estep, AJC.com, 22 June 2026
  • Alejo listens carefully, occasionally offering a tissue or murmuring consolations.
    — Megan Greenwell, Bloomberg, 9 June 2026
Definition of murmuring
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

co-official
cooing
cook
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Cooing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cooing. Accessed 29 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of kith

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Commonly Misspelled Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Aug. 28

Why do we say 'break a leg'?
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
skateboard-dog-hat
Wordmaxxing Slang Quiz Give your vocabulary a glow up by getting sendy w...
See All