cackle
Americanverb (used without object)
-
cackles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cackled,
past participle, past
-
cackling
present participle
-
to utter a shrill, broken sound or cry, as of a hen.
-
to laugh in a shrill, broken manner.
-
to chatter noisily; prattle.
verb (used with object)
-
cackles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cackled,
past participle, past
-
cackling
present participle
noun
-
cackles
plural
-
the act or sound of cackling.
-
chatter; idle talk.
verb
-
(intr) (esp of a hen) to squawk with shrill notes
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(intr) to laugh or chatter raucously
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(tr) to utter in a cackling manner
noun
-
the noise or act of cackling
-
noisy chatter
-
informal to stop chattering; be quiet
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
cacklesimple
-
cacklessimple
-
have cackledperfect
-
has cackledperfect
-
am cacklingprogressive
-
are cacklingprogressive
-
is cacklingprogressive
-
have been cacklingperfect progressive
-
has been cacklingperfect progressive
Past
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cackledsimple
-
had cackledperfect
-
was cacklingprogressive
-
were cacklingprogressive
-
had been cacklingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cackle
1175–1225; Middle English cakelen; cognate with Dutch kakelen, Low German kakeln, Swedish kackla
Explanation
To cackle is to laugh in a loud, harsh way. Your dad's jokes might be so bad that they're funny, making you cackle every time. When you cackle, people hear you — it's annoying to sit in an otherwise quiet restaurant beside a table of people who talk and cackle raucously. The sound the cacklers make can also be called a cackle, a squawking laugh that a chicken might make. Experts think there may be a connection between cackle and the Middle Dutch word for "jaw," kake, but it's most likely to be imitative, a word that sounds just like the noise it describes.
Vocabulary lists containing cackle
The Crossover
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Ungifted
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"The Moustache" and "Who We Really Are"
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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:
Presiding over the baddies, Jared Leto’s blue-skinned, caped, literally boneheaded man-demon Skeletor is meant to be the fiercest of antagonists, but even his own henchmen find his signature evil cackle to be a bit laughable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
When I saw this image of the would-be Poot matriarch for the first time the other day, my first reaction was a hard cackle.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2025
Dafoe says with an unmistakable raspy cackle over the phone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2024
“We come in here and all of our heads can look in like this and collaborate,” she said, adding with a kidlike cackle, “Isn’t it fun?”
From New York Times ● May 2, 2024
A coach door was yanked open, and Jemmy could hear Cutwater's muffled cackle.
From "The Whipping Boy" by Sid Fleischman
The red-headed fairy cackles, “Your hard work didn’t pay off!”
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2025
With each taunt, the room filled with cackles from my teammates.
From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2024
All week I’d reveled in the cackles of leaf monkeys, hoots of gibbons, and barks of macaques, plus choruses of birds and frogs—all backed by the hums and whines of insects.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 23, 2024
As we turn the corner into his office, the cheekily self-proclaimed “horror master” cackles at the sight that greets all who dare to enter: a life-size cardboard cut-out of “Believe”-era Justin Bieber.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2023
Its hard bleachers empty and my headIn the locker room after the game, JB cackles like a crow.
From "The Crossover" by Kwame Alexander
A troupe of local performers enacted boxing and wrestling matches as the crowd cackled.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
I laid on the couch and cackled like an idiot while my friends took no prisoners.
From Slate ● Jun. 26, 2025
As the people with microphones and notebooks pushed and shoved in a hot and muggy hallway--”We don’t air-condition the corridors in this county,” cackled one old observer--it suddenly became apparent.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2025
And they cackled with glee watching the drama in Georgia.
From Salon ● Feb. 16, 2024
Amarante cackled, hugging the wheel with all his might, aiming the backhoe westward.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Many plays and musicals are supposed to draw chuckles, but theatergoers today are cackling like they’re at a comedy show.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
Those stereotypes might bring to mind images of black hats, broomsticks and cackling over cauldrons, common in much media.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2025
But at least if we’re cackling at ourselves together in the theater, we’re less alone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2025
Squibb has played plenty of cackling grannies; even so, Ms. Sturak is her most unhinged.
From New York Times ● Apr. 11, 2024
I stared at her, studying the black mole above her lip, willing her to laugh her loud, cackling laugh and tell me it was a joke.
From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
