What are female cats called? It’s not that crazy of a question, in fact, a lot of people – and this includes cat owners – are not actually aware of the proper name for a female cat.
A female cat is called a Molly.
Did you know that? I’ve owned cats for most of my life (a long time), and I didn’t know this until a friend bought it up as some trivia recently.
I looked into it, and he was right!
Being the cat-enthusiast and inquisitive person that I am I decided to put together a glossary of other cat terms.
Maybe some of the below will come as a surprise to you and help you brush up on your cat trivia too!
Glossary of Cat Terms and Words

Clowder – the collective name for a group of cats.
Feral – a wild cat that has never been domesticated and lives out in the wild.
Gib – a castrated meal cat. The more common term is neutered.
Kitten – a young cat. A cat is typically a kitten until they reach maturity, which is around 6 months of age for most breeds.
Moggy – the term for a mixed breed of cat, but also a slang term commonly used instead of the word cat.
Pedigree – a term for a cat belonging to a particular breed with a family tree registered with the appropriate regulatory body.
Stary – a cat that no longer has as home but was once domesticated. This is the main difference between a stray and a feral cat, feral cats have never had a home.
Queen – a term for a female cat that has not been spayed and typically used to describe a cat expecting kittens. This term tends to be more popular in some countries, such as England.
Tom – a male cat, often used to describe an unneutered male cat.
So, what do you have? A Tom, Molly, a Queen?
Feel free to leave me a comment below if you have any more interesting and useful cat terms you want to share with the community.
Resources
Image credits – Header image by Milada Vigerova, in-body image by C. Z. Shi on Unsplash