growl vs hum

growl

noun
  • A similar sound made by a human. 

  • The rumbling sound made by a human's hungry stomach. 

  • An aggressive grumbling. 

  • A deep, rumbling, threatening sound made in the throat by an animal. 

  • A low-pitched rumbling sound produced with a wind instrument. 

verb
  • To play a wind instrument in a way that produces a low-pitched rumbling sound. 

  • To utter a deep guttural sound, as an angry animal; to give forth an angry, grumbling sound. 

  • Of a wind instrument: to produce a low-pitched rumbling sound. 

  • To send a user a message via the Growl software library. 

  • To express (something) by growling. 

hum

noun
  • An often indistinct sound resembling human humming. 

  • Unpleasant odour. 

  • A phenomenon, or collection of phenomena, involving widespread reports of a persistent and invasive low-frequency humming, rumbling, or droning noise not audible to all people. 

  • Busy activity, like the buzz of a beehive. 

  • A hummed tune, i.e. created orally with lips closed. 

intj
  • Synonym of um: a noise indicating doubt, uncertainty, &c. 

  • Synonym of hmm: a noise indicating thought, consideration, &c. 

verb
  • To produce low sounds which blend continuously 

  • To express by humming. 

  • To reek, smell bad. 

  • To make a sound from the vocal chords without pronouncing any real words, with one's lips closed. 

  • To drone like certain insects naturally do in motion, or sounding similarly 

  • To buzz, be busily active like a beehive 

How often have the words growl and hum occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )