Word.ws English Dictionary

bubbe

Syllables: bub·beUK/ˈbʊbə//ˈbʊbə/

bubbe noun: a grandmother.

Noun

bubbe (plural bubbes)

  1. A grandmother.
    • The Bube explained the situation in voluble Yiddish, and made Esther wince again under the impassioned invective on her clumsiness. […] If the family died of starvation, their blood would be upon her grand-daughter's head.1892, I[srael] Zangwill, “The Sweater”, in Children of the Ghetto […], volume I, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, book I (The Children of the Ghetto), page 34
    • I never met my bubbe, my grandma, the source of all my mother's Yiddish proverbs, […]1987, Linda Barnes, chapter 1, in A Trouble of Fools (A Fawcett Crest Book), New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 1
  2. An elderly woman.
    • "I wanna more chocolate, bubbe," said Karl. […] "You heard the bubbe," said Josie. "There isn't any. You act up and cry and I'll give you the back of my hand."1979 December, Stephen Longstreet, chapter 15, in The Dream Seekers, Los Angeles, Calif.: Pinnacle Books, published January 1981, →ISBN, page 174

Examples of bubbe in a sentence

  • My bubbe’s inability to write in English turned out to be a blessing: she pressed me into service as her scribe at an early age.1992, Steven C. Dubin, “Acknowledgements”, in Arresting Images: Impolitic Art and Uncivil Actions, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y....
  • When I showed my bubbe, she said I had found a memory of the snake, and that memories were precious.1998, Elizabeth Sussman Nassau, “Raisins and Almonds”, in Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Dov Peretz Elkins, editors, Chicken Soup for...

Forms of bubbe

pluralbubbes
alternative formbobbe
alternative formbobeh
alternative formbubbeh
alternative formbubbie
alternative formbubby
alternative formbubah
alternative formbube

Origin of bubbe

Borrowed from Yiddish באָבע (bobe, “grandmother”), and then either from a Slavic language or from eastern Middle High German bābe (“old woman”), both from Proto-Slavic *baba (“old woman”) and ultimately imitative of a child’s babbling. Doublet of baba.

Phrases with bubbe

Questions about bubbe

What does bubbe mean?
Bubbe means a grandmother.
How do you use bubbe in a sentence?
My bubbe’s inability to write in English turned out to be a blessing: she pressed me into service as her scribe at an early age.
What part of speech is bubbe?
Bubbe is a noun.
How do you pronounce bubbe?
Bubbe is pronounced /ˈbʊbə/ (UK).
What is the plural of bubbe?
The plural of bubbe is bubbes.

Words near bubbe in the dictionary

  1. bubba
  2. Bubba vote
  3. Bubba votes
  4. Bubbafication
  5. bubbas
  6. bubbe
  7. bubbe meise
  8. bubbe meises
  9. bubbe-meise
  10. bubbe-meises
  11. bubbed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bubbe (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-bubbe.ogg.

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