Cat Communication: Meows Made for Humans

Cats communicate through an unusually rich and multi-channel system that includes vocalisation, body posture and movement, facial expression, scent marking and tactile behaviour. Remarkably, most of this system is directed at other species, particularly humans, rather than at other cats.

Adult cats rarely meow at each other in nature, the majority of the vocalisations that domestic cats produce were developed and refined specifically for communication with humans. Understanding the full range of feline communication signals allows owners to read their cat's emotional state accurately and respond appropriately.

Vocal Communication: The Wide Range of Cat Sounds

Nicholas Nicastro and Michael Owren, in their 2003 study published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology , studied how naive and experienced human listeners classify domestic cat vocalisations.

Meowing

Meowing is almost exclusively directed at humans in adult cats. Kittens meow to their mothers when distressed or hungry, and this maternal context appears to have been extended by domestication to include the human caregiver as a substitute attachment figure. Adult cats rarely meow at other adult cats.

The meow is not a single sound but a large family of vocalisations varying in pitch, duration, intensity and harmonic structure.

Chirping and Chattering

Chattering is the rapid jaw-clicking sound cats produce when watching birds or insects through a window. The mechanism involves rapid, tense jaw movements that some researchers have interpreted as suppressed frustration (the cat cannot reach the prey) and others as a rehearsal of the kill bite.

Trilling and Chirruping

The trill or chirrup is a short, rising, closed-mouth sound that cats produce as a greeting or attention-soliciting call. Mother cats use it to call kittens to follow them. Adult cats use it toward humans they are comfortable with. It is almost always associated with positive social interactions and is considered one of the clearest signals of a cat in a relaxed, friendly state.

Hissing, Spitting, and Growling

These are unambiguous distress and threat signals that cats produce when frightened, cornered, or actively defensive. Hissing involves forcing air through a partially open mouth with the tongue curved, producing the characteristic sharp sound. It is designed to startle and warn a perceived threat. Growling indicates escalating aggression and imminent defensive action.

Cats that hiss or growl at owners are communicating genuine fear or pain rather than aggression for its own sake. A cat that was previously relaxed and begins hissing or growling, particularly during handling of a specific body area, should be assessed by a veterinarian for possible pain or injury.

Purring

Purring spans communication and physiology. As a communicative signal, it indicates a range of states, contentment, self-soothing under stress and solicitation. See Why Do Cats Purr? for a detailed examination of the mechanism and contexts of purring.

Body Language: Reading the Whole Cat

Feline body language is expressed simultaneously through tail position, ear orientation, pupil dilation, whisker position, overall body posture and the position of the back and fur. Reading individual signals in isolation is unreliable, the full picture provides the accurate read.

Tail Position and Movement

The tail is one of the most legible elements of cat body language.

Tail Position or Movement	Likely Emotional State
Vertical (straight up)	Friendly greeting, confident approach
Vertical with curved tip	Friendly but slightly uncertain
Held horizontally or slightly lowered	Neutral, relaxed
Lowered or tucked between legs	Fear, submission, or pain
Puffed up (piloerection)	Extreme fear or aggression
Thrashing back and forth rapidly	Agitation, frustration, NOT playfulness
Slow, gentle swishing while resting	Mild stimulation, watching something
Quivering while upright against a surface	Scent spraying (marking behaviour)

Ear Position

Forward-facing ears indicate alertness or positive engagement. Ears rotated outward ("satellite dish" position) indicate overstimulation or mild anxiety. Ears flattened sideways or backward ("airplane ears") signal fear, aggression, or severe discomfort. Ears held loosely upright with slight rotation toward sounds indicate relaxed vigilance.

Eye Contact and Pupil Dilation

Slow blinking, a slow, deliberate close-and-open of the eyes, is a well-documented affiliative signal in cats.

A study published in Scientific Reports (2020) reported that cats are more likely to approach a human after the human performs a slow blink and that they increase their own slow blink rate in response to a human's slow blink.

This exchange of slow blinks has been described as a functional equivalent of a smile in feline communication.

Fully dilated pupils indicate either extreme excitement or extreme fear, depending on context. Constricted pupils in bright light are normal, constricted pupils in dim light or during an interaction may indicate pain or a neurological issue.

Whisker Position

Whiskers held forward indicate heightened engagement or threat assessment. Whiskers pulled back flat against the cheeks indicate fear or defensive posturing. Relaxed whiskers pointing slightly outward indicate a neutral or content state.

Scent Communication: The Invisible Language

Cats maintain an extensive chemical communication system that humans cannot directly perceive but that plays a central role in feline social life, territorial behaviour and sexual signalling.

Facial Marking (Bunting)

When a cat rubs its face against a person, object, or another animal, it is depositing secretions from the sebaceous glands located on the forehead, cheeks and chin. This facial marking, called bunting, deposits "friendly" pheromones that identify the marked object or individual as familiar, safe and part of the cat's social environment. A cat that headbutts its owner is performing a bonding and possession signal simultaneously.

Feliway, the synthetic feline facial pheromone product, was developed based on the chemical analysis of these secretions and is used therapeutically to reduce anxiety in cats by replicating the familiar marking signals in stressful environments.

Urine Marking

Urine contains a complex mixture of pheromones conveying identity, sex and reproductive status. Spraying, the backing-up-against-a-vertical-surface urination posture, deposits scent at nose-height for other cats and is distinct from normal elimination. Both male and female cats spray, but the behaviour is far more common in intact males, and neutering reduces it substantially.

Urine left on the floor or in a litter box does not function as territorial spray in the same way as vertical surface marking.

Paw Scent Glands

The interdigital glands of the paws deposit scent during kneading and scratching. This is why cats scratch at territory boundaries, they are leaving a combined visual and olfactory mark. For detail on the scratching-scent relationship, see Why Do Cats Scratch Things?.

Tactile Communication: Touch and Social Grooming

Allorubbing

Cats that share a social group, whether a multi-cat household or a feral colony, frequently rub their bodies along one another, a behaviour called allorubbing. This serves to create a shared colony scent that identifies group members and to reinforce social bonds. When a cat walks through a human's legs and rubs along their ankles and calves, it is performing allorubbing toward the human.

Allogrooming

Social grooming between familiar cats, grooming the head, ears and neck of another cat, is a high-confidence affiliative behaviour seen primarily between cats with close social bonds. Some cats extend this behaviour to humans, licking the hair or eyebrows of owners they are bonded with.

Slow Kneading

Kneading, the rhythmic pressing of alternate forepaws against a soft surface, is rooted in the nursing behaviour of kittens stimulating milk letdown. In adult cats it is a comfort and bonding behaviour directed at surfaces and owners that the cat associates with warmth and security. For a full account of kneading, see Why Do Cats Knead?.

How Cats Communicate with Other Cats vs. with Humans

The division is striking and well-documented.

Communication Channel	Primarily with Other Cats	Primarily with Humans
Meowing	Kittens to mothers	Adult cats to humans almost exclusively
Scent marking (facial)	Yes	Yes (bunting of humans)
Urine marking	Yes (territorial)	Rarely directed specifically at humans
Slow blinking	Yes (familiar conspecifics)	Yes (toward owners)
Allorubbing	Yes	Yes
Hissing and growling	Yes (threat)	Yes (fear/pain to owners)
Chattering	At prey	N/A
Purring	Occasionally	Very frequently toward humans
Tail-up greeting	Yes (friendly cats)	Yes (toward familiar humans)

For further reading on related feline topics, see Why Do Cats Meow?, Why Do Cats Purr?, Why Do Cats Scratch Things? and How Smart Are Cats?. For insights into the nocturnal dimension of cat behaviour, see Are Cats Nocturnal?.