mumble
/ˈmʌmbəl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/ˈmʊmbəl/
mumble verb: to speak unintelligibly or inaudibly; to fail to articulate.
Verb
mumble (third-person singular simple present mumbles, present participle mumbling, simple past and past participle mumbled)
- To speak unintelligibly or inaudibly; to fail to articulate.
- Please try not to mumble so I can hear you better.
- Peace, you mumbling fool.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- To chew something gently with closed lips.
Noun
mumble (plural mumbles)
- A quiet or unintelligible vocalization; a low tone of voice.
- All I could hear was a mumble from the next room.
- He spoke in a barely comprehensible mumble.
mumble meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
mumble in Tamil
- to speak unintelligibly
- முணுமுணு muṇumuṇu
- quiet vocalization
- முணுமுணுப்பு muṇumuṇuppu
mumble in Urdu
- to mumble
- بڑبڑانا baṛbaṛānā
mumble in Bengali
- বিড়বিড় করা, অস্পষ্ট স্বরে বলা
mumble in Malayalam
- to mumble, to whisper, to murmur, to mutter
- പിറുപിറുക്കുക piṟupiṟukkuka
More languagesFewer languages
- mumble in Kannada
- ಗೊಣಗುಟ್ಟು, ಅಸ್ಪಷ್ಟವಾಗಿ ಉಚ್ಚರಿಸು, ವಟಗುಟ್ಟು, ಗೊಜಗುಟ್ಟು
- mumble in Arabic
- غَمْغَمَة ḡamḡama
- mumble in Malay
- gumam
- mumble in Indonesian
- bergumam
- mumble in Thai
- พึมพำ pʉm-pam
- mumble in Vietnamese
- lí nhí
Examples of mumble in a sentence
- When you speak clearly, people understand you. If you don't mumble, the obverse effect is observed.
- He always slurs his 'R's. I wish he'd stop mumbling.
- There was an exciting proliferation of punk rap, mumble rap, emo rap and trap-influenced SoundCloud artists.
Forms of mumble
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | mumbles |
| present participle | mumbling |
| past participle | mumbled |
| past | mumbled |
| Noun | |
| plural | mumbles |
Origin of mumble
From Middle English momelen, a frequentative of mum (sense 3) (“silent”). Compare German mümmeln, Middle Dutch mommelen and Dutch mompelen. Perhaps related to Norwegian Nynorsk mumpa (“to gum, to chew without teeth”).
Words formed from mumble
Words that rhyme with mumble
Questions about mumble
- What does mumble mean?
- Mumble means to speak unintelligibly or inaudibly; to fail to articulate.
- What is mumble in Tamil?
- Mumble in Tamil is முணுமுணு (muṇumuṇu), முணுமுணுப்பு (muṇumuṇuppu). See Mumble meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is mumble?
- Mumble can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce mumble?
- Mumble is pronounced /ˈmʌmbəl/.
- What is the past tense of mumble?
- The past tense of mumble is mumbled.
Words near mumble in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mumble (page history and authors); بڑبڑانا (Urdu) (page history and authors); mumble (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); പിറുപിറുക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); mumble (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-mumble.ogg.
Cite this entry: “mumble.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mumble. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.