babbling
Americannoun
-
foolish or meaningless chatter; prattle.
the constant babbling of idle gossips.
-
the random production of meaningless vocal sounds characteristic of infants around the age of three months.
adjective
-
chattering or prattling aimlessly.
The babbling crowd quieted and funneled back into the auditorium at the end of intermission.
-
making a continuous murmuring sound.
a babbling brook.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of babbling
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English babelinde, bablyng; see origin at babble, -ing 1 (for the noun senses), -ing 2 (for the adjective)
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.
In a documentary last year, he recounted a middle-aged deliveryman who was reduced to a babbling fanboy when he spied the movie poster on Conner’s wall.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 18, 2026
The phrase echoed the one I had spoken years earlier to a babbling toddler in a Baltimore church.
From Slate ● Mar. 29, 2026
Briany was sitting on Raysa’s lap as they watched TV in the living room, babbling along as she listened to the couple talk, when Israel’s phone rang.
From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2026
"America is a big place with 350 plus million people all babbling over their identity and their agency and those struggles create interesting patterns," he says.
From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2026
He paused, one hand on the warm liver, and as his brother knocked him aside, the recollection of a babbling Arctic fox came to his mind.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
