hubbub
Syllables: hub·bub/ˈhʌbʌb/
hubbub noun: a confused sound of a crowd of people shouting or speaking simultaneously; an uproar.
Noun (1)
hubbub (countable and uncountable, plural hubbubs)
- A confused sound of a crowd of people shouting or speaking simultaneously; an uproar.
- They heard a noyſe of many bagpipes ſhrill, / And ſhrieking Hububs them approching nere, / VVhich all the foreſt did vvith horrour fill: […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 43, page 554
- And had not the old-man come in vvith a VVhoo-bub againſt his Daughter, and the Kings Sonne, and ſcar'd my Chovvghes from the Chaffe, I had not left a Purſe aliue in the vvhole Army.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Synonyms:
- hubbuboo, hue and cry, racket, tumult
- Noisy confusion; commotion, uproar; (countable) an instance of this; an ado, a commotion.
- The vvindovves clattring / And all the Chambermaides in ſuch a vvhobub, / One vvith her ſmocke halfe off, another in haſt / VVith a ſervingmans hoſe upon her head.1610–1616 (date written), Iohn [i.e., John] Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas. A Comedy. […], London: […] Thomas Harper, for Iohn Waterson, […], published 1639, →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii, signature [H6], verso
- [page 123] [E]ven as they entred into the fair, all the people in the fair vvere moved, and the Tovvn it ſelf as it vvere in a Hubbub about them; […] [page 127] Then vvere theſe tvvo poor men brought before their Examiners again, and there charged as being guilty of the late Hubbub that had been in...1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, pages 123 and 127
- A sound of people making a battle cry or war cry.
- Synonyms:
- hubbuboo
Verb
hubbub (third-person singular simple present hubbubs, present participle hubbubbing or hubbubing, simple past and past participle hubbubbed or hubbubed)
- To make a confused sound of a crowd of people shouting or speaking simultaneously; to cause a racket or tumult.
- Then, what wretched writing?—"Poured upon the plain,"—"scatter o'er the fields,"—"whitens all the skies,"—"brighten all the fields,"—"flame the skies,"—and "laugh the fields," all huddled and hubbubbed together into one chaotic sentence.1831 December, [John Wilson], “[William] Sotheby’s Homer. Critique IV. Achilles. Part I.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XXXI, number CLXXXVIII, Edinburgh: [Ballantyne and Co. for]...
- It becomes a grotto, hubbubbing with more noise than any class on a school visit could make, the air mobbed by breathless chatter about life and the transfer window.2016, Daniel Gray, Saturday, 3pm: 50 Eternal Delights of Modern Football, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN
Noun (2)
hubbub (uncountable)
- Synonym of bowl game (“a Native American game of chance involving the throwing of colored nuts from a bowl, comparable to dice”).
- They have tvvo ſorts of games, one called Puim, the other Hubbub, not much unlike Cards and Dice, being no other than Lotterie. […] Hubbub is five ſmall Bones in a ſmall ſmooth Tray, the bones bee like a Die, but ſomething flatter, blacke on one ſide and vvhite on the other, vvhich they place on...1634, William Wood, “Their Games and Sports of Activitie”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London...
- Synonyms:
- bowl game
hubbub meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
hubbub in Hindi
- confused sound of a crowd of people shouting or speaking simultaneously
- हुड़दंग huṛdaṅg
hubbub in Tamil
- ஆரவாரம், குழப்ப ஒலி, குழப்பம், பேரொலி, அல்லோலகல்லோலம்
hubbub in Urdu
- گڑبڑ, غوغا, ہلڑ, شور
hubbub in Bengali
- গোলমাল, হট্টগোল, কোলাহল
More languagesFewer languages
- hubbub in Telugu
- గుబగుబ gubaguba, గొల్లు gollu
- hubbub in Malayalam
- ആരവം, ബഹളം, ഒച്ചപ്പാട്
- hubbub in Kannada
- ಗೊಂದಲ, ಗಲಾಟೆ, ಗುಲ್ಲು, ದಾಂಧಲೆ
- hubbub in Arabic
- جَلَبَة jalaba, صَخَب ṣaḵab, ضَوْضَاء ḍawḍāʔ, ضَجَّة ḍajja
- hubbub in Persian
- هیاهو hayâhu
Examples of hubbub in a sentence
- At length a univerſal hubbub vvilde / Of ſtunning ſounds and voices all confus'd, / Born [borne] through the hollovv dark aſſaults his eare / VVith loudeſt vehemence: […]1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert...
- [T]he mighty Amsterdam, […] its Exchange resounding with the endless hubbub of all the languages spoken by civilised men.1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter IX, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume II, London: Longman, Brown...
- [T]hey asked the reaſon of the hubbub, and tumult.1682, John Bunyan, “[Men of Arms Come Down]”, in The Holy War, Made by Shaddai upon Diabolus, for the Regaining of the Metropolis of the...
- A scene of uproar and hubbub ensued that defies description.1836 October, Washington Irving, chapter XIX, in Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains. […], volume I...
Synonyms of hubbub
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of hubbub
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | hubbubs |
| alternative form | hub-bub |
| alternative form | whobub |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | hubbubs |
| present participle | hubbubbing |
| present participle | hubbubing |
| past participle | hubbubbed |
| past | hubbubbed |
| past participle | hubbubed |
| past | hubbubed |
Origin of hubbub
In early use, the noun is often mentioned as a cry by Irish people, and so is possibly borrowed from Irish; compare Irish ababú, abú (“used as a battle cry”), and Scottish Gaelic ub, ub, ubub (“used to express contempt, etc.”), ubh ubh (“used to express disgust”). The verb is derived from the noun.
Used by New England colonists (17th–18th century) to imitate the sounds hub, hub, hub cried by the players: see the 1634 quotation.
Questions about hubbub
- What does hubbub mean?
- Hubbub means a confused sound of a crowd of people shouting or speaking simultaneously; an uproar.
- What is hubbub in Hindi?
- Hubbub in Hindi is हुड़दंग (huṛdaṅg). See Hubbub meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use hubbub in a sentence?
- At length a univerſal hubbub vvilde / Of ſtunning ſounds and voices all confus'd, / Born [borne] through the hollovv dark aſſaults his eare / VVith loudeſt vehemence: […]
- What part of speech is hubbub?
- Hubbub can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce hubbub?
- Hubbub is pronounced /ˈhʌbʌb/ (UK).
- What is the plural of hubbub?
- The plural of hubbub is hubbubs.
Words near hubbub in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hubbub (page history and authors); hubbub (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hubbub (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Hubbub (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); గుబగుబ (Telugu) (page history and authors); hubbub (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hubbub (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hubbub.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-hubbub.wav.
Cite this entry: “hubbub.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hubbub. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.