: a mammalian behavior (as of horses or cats) in which the animal inhales with the mouth open and upper lip curled to facilitate exposure of the vomeronasal organ to a scent or pheromone
flehmen
intransitive verb
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Flehmen comes from German, in which the word applies to animals and means "to curl the upper lip." The German source of the English word is a verb, and it is used, infrequently, as such, as in "the horse flehmened." More often, the English verb form is a gerund: "the horse's flehmening." Flehmen is sometimes capitalized in English because German nouns are capitalized; however, the English word tends to be lowercase.
Examples of flehmen in a Sentence
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The flehmen response allows jaguars and leopards to take stock of other animals and identify them from their smell alone, according to Weckworth.
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Jacquelyne Germain, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Nov. 2022
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Jacquelyne Germain, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Nov. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Flehmen.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flehmen. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
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