Word.ws English Dictionary

mutter

Syllables: mut·terUK/ˈmʌtə//ˈmʌtɚ/

mutter noun: a repressed or obscure utterance; an instance of muttering.

Noun (1)

mutter (plural mutters)

  1. A repressed or obscure utterance; an instance of muttering.
    • The prisoners were docile, and accepted their lot with barely a mutter.

Verb

mutter (third-person singular simple present mutters, present participle muttering, simple past and past participle muttered)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To utter words, especially complaints or angry expressions, indistinctly or with a low voice and lips partly closed; to say under one's breath.
    • You could hear the students mutter as they were served sodden spaghetti, yet again, in the cafeteria.
    • The beggar muttered words of thanks, as passersby dropped coins in his cup.
    Synonyms:
    growl, grumble, mumble
  2. To speak softly and incoherently, or with imperfect articulations.
    • The asylum inmate muttered some doggerel about chains and pains to himself, over and over.
    • Meantime your filthy foreigner will stare, / And mutter to himself.1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC, (please specify the page number)
  3. To make a sound with a low, rumbling noise.
    • April could hear the delivery van's engine muttering in the driveway.
    • Thick lightnings flash, the muttering thunder rolls.1715–1720, Homer, “Book VIII”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    growl, putter, rumble

Noun (2)

mutter

  1. (Indian cuisine) Peas.

Proper noun capitalized: Mutter

Mutter

  1. A surname.

mutter meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Telugu

mutter in Hindi

speak under one's breath
बुदबुदाना budbudānā, बड़बड़ाना baṛabṛānā

mutter in Tamil

முணு முணு, மெல்லப்பேசு

mutter in Bengali

বিড়বিড় করা, অস্ফুট স্বরে বলা

mutter in Telugu

to mutter, to mumble, to whisper
గొణుగు goṇugu, గొణగు goṇagu
More languagesFewer languages
mutter in Malayalam
അസ്പഷ്ടമായി സംസാരിക്കുക, പിറുപിറുക്കുക, താണ ശബ്ദത്തിൽ പറയുക
mutter in Kannada
ಮೆಲುದನಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಉಚ್ಚರಿಸು, ತಗ್ಗುದನಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಆಡು, ಪಿಸುಮಾತಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಹೇಳು, ಗೊಣಗು
mutter in Arabic
غَمْغَمَة ḡamḡama, تَمْتَمة, تَمْتَمَ tamtama, هَمْهَمَ hamhama
mutter in Persian
زمزمه کردن zemzeme kardan
mutter in Thai
งึมงำ ngʉm-ngam, บ่น bòn, พึมพำ pʉm-pam
mutter in Vietnamese
lẩm bẩm

Examples of mutter in a sentence

  • One of my copatients in the psychiatric hospital kept me awake with his muttering and yelling.
  • The patient was half conscious and muttering a few words.
  • We could see three different scalpers moving through the crowd outside the arena, each muttering the characteristic refrain: “Need any tickets?”

All 40 example sentences with mutter

Synonyms of mutter

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of mutter

Forms of mutter

Noun
pluralmutters
alternative formmatar
Verb
third-person singular presentmutters
present participlemuttering
past participlemuttered
pastmuttered

Past tense of mutter: muttered

Plural of mutter: mutters

Origin of mutter

From Middle English muteren, moteren, of imitative origin. Compare Low German mustern, musseln (“to whisper”), German muttern (“to mutter; whisper”), Old Norse muðla (“to murmur”). Compare also Latin muttīre, mutīre.

Borrowed from Hindi मटर (maṭar).

Words formed from mutter

Words that rhyme with mutter

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about mutter

What does mutter mean?
Mutter means a repressed or obscure utterance; an instance of muttering.
What is mutter in Hindi?
Mutter in Hindi is बुदबुदाना (budbudānā), बड़बड़ाना (baṛabṛānā). See Mutter meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is mutter?
Mutter can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce mutter?
Mutter is pronounced /ˈmʌtə/ (UK).
What is the plural of mutter?
The plural of mutter is mutters.

Words near mutter in the dictionary

  1. Muttama
  2. muttasuddies
  3. muttasuddy
  4. muttawa
  5. Muttenz
  6. mutter
  7. mutter paneer
  8. mutterance
  9. mutterances
  10. mutteration
  11. mutterations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mutter (page history and authors); Mutter (page history and authors); mutter (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mutter (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); గొణగు (Telugu) (page history and authors); mutter (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mutter (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-mutter.ogg, en-au-mutter.ogg.

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