To ululate is to make a long, loud, wavering cry — a high sound held in the throat that goes up and down instead of staying flat. It is not a word for ordinary crying, and it is not shouting. The sound is closer to a howl or a wail, and it is meant to be heard from far away. You will meet it in three places. In writing about grief, especially at funerals in parts of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, where women ululate together as a formal, public way of mourning — it is a shared act, not one person losing control. In writing about celebration in those same regions, where the very same sound at a wedding or a homecoming means joy, which surprises many learners. And in describing animals and wind: wolves, dogs and sirens are said to ululate. It is a literary and formal verb. In everyday English no one says "he ululated"; they say he howled, wailed, or screamed. So when you see it, the writer has chosen it on purpose, usually to make the sound feel strange, old, or ceremonial. It is normally intransitive — the crowd ululated — with no object after it.

（拉長聲）號哭、放聲哀號；也指中東、北非婦女在婚喪場合發出的那種高亢顫音（可說「歡呼顫音」）