How to Use littermate in a Sentence

littermate

noun
  • That's what his littermates would do.
    — Rachael O'Connor, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Oct. 2025
  • And then there was one, curled up in a ball, in the grass, away from all her littermates.
    — Betsy Helfand, Twin Cities, 21 Apr. 2024
  • The littermate was found, tranquilized and brought back to the ranch.
    — Ann Zaniewski, Detroit Free Press, 20 June 2019
  • Puppies learn a great deal of social skills from their littermates and their mother.
    — Anika Marinakis, The Mercury News, 16 May 2017
  • Some big cats will also play with their littermates by batting each other’s tails.
    — National Geographic, 19 June 2018
  • These past experiences can come from their time with their mother and littermates.
    — Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Discover Magazine, 19 Dec. 2024
  • The dog comes into being as a puppy, scrabbling with its littermates.
    — Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker, 28 Jan. 2017
  • Suki's littermate Mika served as maid of honor, standing by her side in a pink dog dress.
    — Kate Hogan, Peoplemag, 7 Apr. 2024
  • At one point, she was adopted but later returned because of littermate syndrome.
    — Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 May 2025
  • Amber hasn’t lived with other cats recently but was playful with her littermates as a kitten.
    — Trish Stinger, Kansas City Star, 4 June 2025
  • Four months later, his littermate, Jessie, was diagnosed with head and neck cancer.
    — Johnny Runnette, Los Angeles Times, 20 May 2022
  • The roughly 5-month-old kitten got a fresh start after he and his littermates were found living in a colony of feral cats.
    — Simone Jasper, Charlotte Observer, 25 Sep. 2025
  • Imagine a mouse, waking with eyes red and sleepy, turning to his littermates, suddenly unable to say a word.
    — Rachel Hoge, Longreads, 4 Aug. 2017
  • At 11 weeks old, someone left him and his nine littermates on the side of a rural road in Oklahoma.
    — Elise Taylor, Vogue, 14 Aug. 2024
  • Health officials have yet to find the littermate or identify its rabies status.
    — From Usa Today Network and Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 29 July 2021
  • For the puppy, leaving its mother and littermates can be stressful at first, and crying or whining is normal.
    — Lucy Notarantonio, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Mar. 2026
  • Behind the fence, his littermates and an older dog wag their tails, seemingly aware of the bittersweet goodbye.
    — Tommy Tuberville, Newsweek, 7 Mar. 2025
  • Zoo staff were concerned about hand-rearing Zoya apart from the socialization of a mother and littermates.
    — Robert Moran, Philly.com, 20 July 2017
  • While mice with an intact sense of smell grow obese on a steady diet of high-fat chow, their littermates who have had their sense of smell expunged can eat the same food yet remain trim.
    — Melissa Healy, latimes.com, 5 July 2017
  • Things like tugging on his littermate’s ears, learning how to go potty outside and, of course, playing, napping and cuddling! Cheeseburger and his siblings were just a couple of days old when they were rescued by the Arizona Humane Society in May, along with their mama.
    — The Republic, The Arizona Republic, 14 July 2023
  • But his bid for a Triple Crown of dogdom ended when he was topped by littermate Bourbon in the breed judging.
    — Ben Walker, The Seattle Times, 12 Feb. 2019
  • Kittens naturally learn through play with their littermates, and this remains important for adult cats.
    — Tommy Tuberville, Newsweek, 7 Mar. 2025
  • Modafinil more effectively induces wakefulness in orexin-null mice than in wild-type littermates.
    — The Salt Lake Tribune, 15 Aug. 2023
  • According to Turner, Kaiko and her littermates lived outdoors in a pen from birth until she was rescued at around nine months old.
    — Alice Gibbs, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Mar. 2026
  • Five other littermates were also delivered, each surrounded by its own placenta, as is usually the case in dogs.
    — Brian Clark Howard, National Geographic, 2 Sep. 2016
  • The two littermates, Lola and Bear, reuniting in the New York City street.
    — Lydia Patrick, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Aug. 2025
  • Peace, the coyote pup who garnered headlines last year as the lone survivor of a brutal attack that killed his five littermates, survived another close encounter.
    — Christy Gutowski, chicagotribune.com, 27 May 2018
  • By definition, a runt is a puppy that is significantly smaller than its littermates.
    — Justin Gest, Newsweek, 20 Jan. 2025
  • Once a cub has been tackled by its littermates, roles might reverse such that a littermate handicaps itself, allowing the other cub to tackle it in return.
    — Caitlin O'Connell, Scientific American, 1 Aug. 2021
  • The two have been a team ever since Cassens picked Groot out as a 6-week-old puppy from among nine littermates at a breeder’s kennel in Redding.
    — Steve Rubenstein, SFChronicle.com, 26 Feb. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'littermate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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