Trilling sounds are fairly short and often soft sounds rolled on the tongue with the mouth closed: : [mhrː], [mːrːut] or [brːh]. Often used during friendly approach or greeting, during play, and also as a friendly request or confirmation. There are several subtypes of trills. Grunts (or murmurs) are usually more low-pitched (and sometimes a bit harsh), while chirr(up)s are more high-pitched, sometimes with a rising melody. There may even be a third subtype; a murmur (or coo) without any trilling or rolling r-sound, which is more like a soft [m] or murmuring sound. Sometimes cats combine a grunt or chirr(up) with a meow sound, thus producing more complex vocalisation types: [mhriauw], [briuw] or [brːiau]. Combinations of purring and trilling are also common.

The image to the right shows the phonetic characteristics (waveform, spectrogram and pitch contour) and gives an audio example of a trill (in this case a chirrup, which is played back three times). Below you can find additional examples of different trills and combinations of trills and other sounds.