babble
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
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to utter in an incoherent, foolish, or meaningless fashion.
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to reveal foolishly or thoughtlessly.
to babble a secret.
noun
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inarticulate or imperfect speech.
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foolish, meaningless, or incoherent speech; prattle.
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a murmuring sound or a confusion of sounds.
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Telecommunications. a confused mixture of extraneous sounds in a circuit, resulting from cross talk from other channels.
verb
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to utter (words, sounds, etc) in an incoherent or indistinct jumble
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(intr) to talk foolishly, incessantly, or irrelevantly
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(tr) to disclose (secrets, confidences, etc) carelessly or impulsively
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(intr) (of streams, birds, etc) to make a low murmuring or bubbling sound
noun
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incoherent or foolish speech; chatter
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a murmuring or bubbling sound
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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babblesimple
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babblessimple
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have babbledperfect
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has babbledperfect
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am babblingprogressive
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are babblingprogressive
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is babblingprogressive
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have been babblingperfect progressive
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has been babblingperfect progressive
Past
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babbledsimple
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had babbledperfect
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was babblingprogressive
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were babblingprogressive
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had been babblingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of babble
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English babelen; cognate with Old Norse babbla, Dutch babbelen, German pappelen
Explanation
To babble is to talk on and on without a particular goal. It might drive you crazy when your little sister babbles endlessly about her favorite video game. Babble sounds like Babel, the Biblical tower where everyone was talking in their own language. Everyone was babbling without paying attention to their neighbors, like the kid who won’t stop talking about his trip to the water park three years ago. A stream or a brook can babble, too, but that’s more of a soothing sound of water against rocks. Babies gurgle, because they don’t have enough words to babble yet.
Vocabulary lists containing babble
Instead of "Said": Words That Sound Like What They Mean
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Mother's Day Words: What Mothers Do
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Unit 4: Powerful Openings
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Instead he softened the blow with corporate babble: “You were building the plane while you flew it.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
Behind me, a child began to giggle—then babble, then laugh again.
From Slate ● Mar. 29, 2026
Meanwhile, the southern pied babbler does not, in fact, merely babble.
From Salon ● May 29, 2025
But until she signed up for “Palm Royale,” she had never tackled a role that would require her to spend a large chunk of time speaking in incomprehensible babble.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2024
Then a babble burst forth from all the children at once.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
At first Bella babbles and stumbles around like a precocious toddler, learning to speak and move by imitating the adults around her.
From New York Times ● Mar. 2, 2024
A pond babbles outside the window, and a garden of succulents climbs up to claim the wooden exterior walls.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2022
I listened to their babbles and tried to echo the sounds I heard.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 15, 2022
As he babbles "cat" and "duck", I wish I could hear him without the whistling.
From BBC ● Jan. 3, 2022
She babbles on about her classes while I ruin leaf after red leaf.
From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson
I spent days pressing a light-up toy when we said his name to draw his attention and babbled incessantly in his face so he could copy my lip patterns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
Lutnick showed up on CBS' "Face the Nation" and babbled so incoherently about robots and manufacturing and "tiny screws" that you had to wonder if someone put something in his morning coffee.
From Salon ● Apr. 7, 2025
German reports said Arthur E was a diamond trader who had "babbled like a brook" after his arrest.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2023
Sophie babbled to herself on the floor beneath them.
From Slate ● Mar. 25, 2023
On and on the woman’s voice babbled, the man at my side hearing everything.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
The phrase echoed the one I had spoken years earlier to a babbling toddler in a Baltimore church.
From Slate ● Mar. 29, 2026
Haden Pentecost, 41, was working on a flight from California to London when he started to become agitated and was described as "sweating" and "babbling".
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2025
Today, he can barely get out a sentence without babbling.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2025
That is not to say it would have been particularly shrewd for the president to have wandered into the Rose Garden and started babbling about what a “very fine person” Luigi Mangione is.
From Slate ● Apr. 1, 2025
One evening I started babbling in baby talk.
From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
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.
