twitter
verb (used without object)
to utter a succession of small, tremulous sounds, as a bird.
[twit-er]
/ ˈtwɪt ər /
verb (used without object)
-
twitters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
twittered,
past participle, past
-
twittering
present participle
-
to utter a succession of small, tremulous sounds, as a bird.
-
to talk lightly and rapidly, especially of trivial matters; chatter.
-
to titter; giggle.
-
to tremble with excitement or the like; be in a flutter.
-
Digital Technology. tweet.
verb (used with object)
-
twitters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
twittered,
past participle, past
-
twittering
present participle
Twitter
2
American
Trademark.
twitter
1
British
/ ˈtwɪtə /
verb
-
(intr) (esp of a bird) to utter a succession of chirping sounds
-
(intr) to talk or move rapidly and tremulously
-
(intr) to giggle
her schoolmates twittered behind their desks
-
(tr) to utter in a chirping way
noun
-
a twittering sound, esp of a bird
-
the act of twittering
-
a state of nervous excitement (esp in the phrase in a twitter )
Twitter
2
British
/ ˈtwɪtə /
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
twittersimple
-
twitterssimple
-
have twitteredperfect
-
has twitteredperfect
-
am twitteringprogressive
-
are twitteringprogressive
-
is twitteringprogressive
-
have been twitteringperfect progressive
-
has been twitteringperfect progressive
Past
-
twitteredsimple
-
had twitteredperfect
-
was twitteringprogressive
-
were twitteringprogressive
-
had been twitteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of twitter
1325–75; Middle English twiteren (v.); akin to German zwitschern
Explanation
To twitter is to make a sound like a bird's trill or chirp. One of the nicest things about spring is the sound of birds as they twitter in the trees. Tweet tweet! When birds twitter, they make a staccato, musical chirping sound. You can call this sound itself a twitter too. Sometimes the word is used to describe a similar sound made by chattering humans. In the fourteenth century, the word was twiteren, developed from an imitation of the sound that twittering birds make. Twitter is also a social media website founded in 2006, on which people post 140-character bursts of information called tweets. Wonder where they got that idea.
Vocabulary lists containing twitter
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
OpenAI rejected the offer and Altman subsequently posted on Musk's social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want".
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026
“Re: my father: well, now you know why I refused to give him the password to his own twitter account for a decade lol” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2024
“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk posted on the site.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 24, 2023
“Soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” he wrote.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2023
I even heard the tentative twitter of birds.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
So it wasn’t surprising that his damage control came quickly and at length in a Twitter essay the following morning.
From Slate ● Nov. 7, 2026
Engineers from his companies were seconded over to X, formerly Twitter, after Musk bought the social media platform in 2022.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026
The researchers demonstrated that the ousiometer can analyze material from remarkably different sources, including Jane Austen's novels, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, the New York Times, Wikipedia, Twitter, and transcripts of talk radio programs.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026
That was a year after fledgling social media platforms Facebook and Twitter launched to the public.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026
And through Twitter, Facebook, and PIH’s own website, when new health and humanitarian crises occur, such as the January 2010 earthquake and the 2010-2012 cholera outbreak in Haiti, the response can be instantaneous.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
Looking like a miniature killer whale, it twitters in flight.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 16, 2020
We startle a chunky little woodcock that's sheltering in the long grass and it twitters its indignation shrilly.
From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2020
A small, pearly ensemble twitters, pipes up, coils, sings and surges over the bells, as a piano provides a rich, mellow grounding.
From New York Times ● Oct. 28, 2016
In an age of 24/7 rolling news, blogs and twitters, we are on constant call wherever we are.
From Time ● Feb. 22, 2012
Gran twitters on for another five minutes, filling me in on mundane news: Heather has decided she wants to become a librarian.
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
Shorebirds twittered and blue-gray waves lapped and whooshed, bringing the sounds of the beach to the Central Valley.
From New York Times ● Apr. 3, 2023
As the orange ball of the sun rose on the horizon and birds twittered in the eucalypti, Baumgarten showed up—a fit, poised, attractive guy in his 40s.
From Golf Digest ● Apr. 2, 2020
The highlight was a rare 19th-century pocket watch, whose face was dotted with pearls and rubies and concealed a pop-up bird, slightly larger than a thumbnail, that twittered and sang.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 20, 2019
He twittered on about last night’s screening, then asked me to think of a piece to write for Vogue, so that’s a relief.
From MSNBC ● Nov. 15, 2017
And even then, in the quiet darkness inside the caravan, the pretty bird chuckled and twittered and trilled, and, once, it even hooted like a little owl.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
It helps nurture a slower, older way of life, with pocket flocks and modest dairy herds enclosed by thick hedgerows foaming with cow parsley and twittering songbirds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026
On a long low wall alongside the Liangshui river in Beijing, a trader has several small cages with tiny twittering birds.
From BBC ● Dec. 28, 2025
On a spring day, with wildflowers blooming and birds twittering, the war can seem far away.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2022
Today’s readers, used to the twittering demotic of our age, may need to adjust to this titanic prose-poem’s leisurely, mandarin style.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 9, 2022
A thrush, too, went about his business, and two stout little wag-tails, following one another, and a little cluster of twittering sparrows.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
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