Word.ws English Dictionary

babble

/ˈbæb.(ə)l/

babble verb: to utter words indistinctly or unintelligibly; to utter inarticulate sounds.

Verb

babble (third-person singular simple present babbles, present participle babbling, simple past and past participle babbled)

  1. (intransitive) To utter words indistinctly or unintelligibly; to utter inarticulate sounds
    • The men were babbling, so we couldn't make sense of anything.
  2. (intransitive) To talk incoherently; to utter meaningless words.
  3. (intransitive) To talk too much; to chatter; to prattle.
    • She babbled on for hours about the importance of some new gadget.
    • Radical rather than rhetorical, babble like an oracle2022, “The Dying Song (Time To Sing)”, performed by Slipknot
  4. (intransitive) To make a continuous murmuring noise, like shallow water running over stones.
    • Hounds are said to babble, or to be babbling, when they are too noisy after having found a good scent.
    • In every babbling brook he finds a friend.1815, William Wordsworth, “Extracts from Descriptive Sketches”, in Poems […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], published 1815, →OCLC
  5. (transitive) To utter in an indistinct or incoherent way; to repeat words or sounds in a childish way without understanding.
    • All this vvhile John had conn'd over ſuch a Catalogue of hard VVords, as vvere enough to conjure up the Devil; theſe he uſed to babble indifferently in all Companies, eſpecially at Coffee-houſes; ſo that his Neighbour Tradeſmen began to ſhun his Company as a Man that vvas crack'd.1733, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], Alexander Pope, compiler, “Law is a Bottomless Pit. Or, The History of John Bull. […]. [The First Part.] Chapter VII. How John Bull was so...
  6. (transitive) To reveal; to give away (a secret).

Noun

babble (usually uncountable, plural babbles)

  1. (usually) Idle talk; senseless prattle.
    • This is mere moral babble.1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey...
    • Assassin's Creed gets described as "more than a game" and "a platform for meaningful exploration and reflection wrapped in the excitement of unforgettable gameplay"—which is executive babble, let's be honest.2025 February, Harvey Randall, “Ubi Strikes Back”, in PC Gamer (US), number 392, page 9
    Synonyms:
    gabble, twaddle
  2. (usually) Inarticulate speech; constant or confused murmur.
    • [M]an has an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the babble of our young children; whilst no child has an instinctive tendency to brew, bake, or write.1871, Charles Darwin, “Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals”, in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Part I...
  3. (usually) A sound like that of water gently flowing around obstructions.
    • [T]he babble of the stream / Fell, and without the steady glare / Shrank the sick olive sere and small.1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “Mariana in the South”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 23

babble meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

babble in Hindi

to utter words indistinctly
बकना baknā

babble in Tamil

மழலை, பிதற்றல், அரைகுறைப்பேச்சு, பயனில் கூற்று, நரோட்டத்தின் மென்மையான சலசலப்பு, மதலையைப்போலப் பேசு

babble in Marathi

to babble, prattle senselessly
बडबडणे baḍbaḍṇe

babble in Urdu

بچہ بولی, جھک
More languagesFewer languages
babble in Bengali
অস্পষ্ট, অর্থহীন কথা বলা, কলকল ধ্বনি করা
babble in Malayalam
അവ്യക്തമായി, വേഗത്തിൽ സംസാരിക്കുക
babble in Kannada
ವಿಪ್ರಲಾಪ, ಹರಟು, ಗಳಹು, ಮಗುವಿನಂತೆ ತೊದಲ್ನುಡಿ
babble in Gujarati
બબડવું babaḍvũ
babble in Persian
دراییدن darâyidan, یاوه گفتن yâve goftan, نارسا گویی nârasâ guyi
babble in Vietnamese
bi bô, bập bẹ, lảm nhảm, rì rào

Examples of babble in a sentence

  • “I don't know if I could handle only having a bathtub,” I babble.
  • She is frowning, hiding her nervousness of Suzy’s presence behind the Jafaican babble.
  • I sacrificingly give the caller five minutes to babble, cursing and resenting every second.

All 24 example sentences with babble

Synonyms of babble

Forms of babble

Verb
third-person singular presentbabbles
present participlebabbling
past participlebabbled
pastbabbled
Noun
pluralbabbles

Past tense of babble: babbled

Origin of babble

From Middle English babelen, from Old English *bæblian, also wæflian (“to talk foolishly”), from Proto-West Germanic *bablōn, *wablōn, variants of *babalōn, from Proto-Germanic *babalōną (“to chatter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰa-bʰa-, perhaps a reduplication of Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to say”), or a variant of Proto-Indo-European *baba- (“to talk vaguely, mumble”), or a merger of the two, possibly ultimately onomatopoeic/mimicry of infantile sounds (compare babe, baby). Cognate with Saterland Frisian babbelje (“to babble”), West Frisian babbelje (“to babble”), Dutch babbelen (“to babble, chat”), German Low German babbeln (“to babble”), German babbeln (“to babble”), Danish bable, bavle (“to babble”), Swedish babbla (“to babble”), Icelandic babla (“to babble”). Unrelated to Babel.

Words formed from babble

Phrases with babble

Words that rhyme with babble

Questions about babble

What does babble mean?
Babble means to utter words indistinctly or unintelligibly; to utter inarticulate sounds.
What is babble in Hindi?
Babble in Hindi is बकना (baknā). See Babble meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is babble?
Babble can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce babble?
Babble is pronounced /ˈbæb.(ə)l/.
What is the past tense of babble?
The past tense of babble is babbled.

Words near babble in the dictionary

  1. babbitting
  2. Babbittism
  3. babbittry
  4. babbitts
  5. babblative
  6. babble
  7. babble word
  8. babble words
  9. babble-word
  10. babble-words
  11. babbled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: babble (page history and authors); babble (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); बडबडणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); babble (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); babble (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); babble (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); babble (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-babble.ogg, en-au-babble.ogg.

Cite this entry: “babble.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/babble. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.