stammer
/ˈstæmə/US/ˈstæmɚ/
stammer verb: to keep repeating a particular sound involuntarily during speech.
Verb
stammer (third-person singular simple present stammers, present participle stammering, simple past and past participle stammered)
- To keep repeating a particular sound involuntarily during speech.
- To utter with a stammer, or with timid hesitancy.
- He blushed, and stammered a few words of apology.
- The high school had a send-off in my honour. It was an uncommon thing for a young man of Rajkot to go to England. I had written out a few words of thanks. But I could scarcely stammer them out. I remember how my head reeled and how my whole frame shook as I stood up to read them.1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xi
Noun
stammer (plural stammers)
- The involuntary repetition of a sound in speech.
- She said goodbye in a stammer.
- A speech defect whereby someone speaks with a stammer
Proper noun capitalized: Stammer
Stammer (plural Stammers)
- A surname from German.
stammer meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
stammer in Hindi
- to stutter
- हकलाना haklānā, लड़खड़ाना laṛakhṛānā, हँकलाना hãklānā, हिकलाना hiklānā
- involuntary repetition of sounds in speech
- हकलाहट haklāhaṭ, हकलापन haklāpan
stammer in Tamil
- திக்கு
stammer in Urdu
- ہکلانا, لڑکھڑانا
stammer in Bengali
- stammer
- ইতস্তত itostoto
More languagesFewer languages
- stammer in Telugu
- నత్తి natti
- stammer in Malayalam
- നത്തുക nattuka, വിക്കുക vikkuka
- stammer in Kannada
- ಬಿಕ್ಕಲು, ತೊದಲ್, ತೊದಲು, ತೊದಳ್
- stammer in Punjabi
- ਥਥਲਾਉਣਾ thathlāuṇā
- stammer in Odia
- ଲାଗିବା lāgibā
- stammer in Sanskrit
- कण्ठभङ्ग kaṇṭhabhaṅga
- stammer in Arabic
- تَلَجْلَجَ talajlaja, تَلَعْثَمَ talaʕṯama
- stammer in Thai
- ติดอ่าง dtìt-àang, อ่าง àang
- stammer in Vietnamese
- nói lắp, vấp lưỡi, cà lăm
- stammer in Myanmar
- ဆွံ့ hcwam.
Examples of stammer in a sentence
- The best man balled up his speech, stammering and tripping over his words.
- I feared most of all a loss of identity, that C. would become 'the one who stammers'".
- That's not true — he — wait just a —” stammered Fancy.
Synonyms of stammer
11 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of stammer
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | stammers |
| present participle | stammering |
| past participle | stammered |
| past | stammered |
| Noun | |
| plural | stammers |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Stammers |
Origin of stammer
From Middle English stameren, from Old English stamerian, from Proto-West Germanic *stamrōn, from Proto-Germanic *stamrōną (“to stammer”). Compare German stammeln, Dutch stameren, Old Norse stammr. Doublet of stumble.
Borrowed from German Stammer.
Words formed from stammer
Words that rhyme with stammer
Questions about stammer
- What does stammer mean?
- Stammer means to keep repeating a particular sound involuntarily during speech.
- What is stammer in Hindi?
- Stammer in Hindi is हकलाना (haklānā), लड़खड़ाना (laṛakhṛānā), हँकलाना (hãklānā). See Stammer meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is stammer?
- Stammer can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce stammer?
- Stammer is pronounced /ˈstæmə/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of stammer?
- The past tense of stammer is stammered.
Words near stammer in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stammer (page history and authors); Stammer (page history and authors); stammer (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stammer (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ইতস্তত (Bengali) (page history and authors); നത്തുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); stammer (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ଲାଗିବା (Odia) (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-stammer.wav.
Cite this entry: “stammer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stammer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.