Babel
1 Americannoun
noun
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(in the Bible) an ancient city in the land of Shinar in which the building of a tower Tower of Babel intended to reach heaven was begun and the confusion of the language of the people took place.
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(usually lowercase) a confused mixture of sounds or voices.
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(usually lowercase) a scene of noise and confusion.
noun
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Old Testament
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Also called: Tower of Babel. a tower presumptuously intended to reach from earth to heaven, the building of which was frustrated when Jehovah confused the language of the builders (Genesis 11:1–9)
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the city, probably Babylon, in which this tower was supposedly built
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(often not capital)
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a confusion of noises or voices
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a scene of noise and confusion
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noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of Babel
First recorded in 1300–50; from Latin, from Hebrew Bābhel “Babylon,” from Akkadian bāb-ilim “the gate of the god”
Explanation
Babel is a hubbub, or a confused mix of voices. It might be hard for your grandfather to hear in a restaurant with background music and a loud babel of conversation. The babel of voices in a hotel's hall at night makes it difficult to sleep, and the babel of kids talking all at once is frustrating for a new teacher. Babel can also mean a figurative noise or conversation: "The babel of expert opinions on this issue is confusing me." Babel comes from the Biblical "Tower of Babel" story, in which God confused the builders of a tower to heaven by making them speak different languages.
Vocabulary lists containing babel
Tolkien Reading Day, List 3
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
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The Fellowship of the Ring
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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.
The first is Babel, the story of builders so captivated by their own ambition that they never pause to ask what they are building or whom it serves.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 10, 2026
Sir Peter Bazalgette argues that they're needed more than ever in our AI age to serve as "a gold standard of trusted news for our democracy, amid the online Tower of Babel."
From BBC • May 13, 2025
It would be a little bit of a tower of Babel, with different astronomers saying different things.
From Salon • Mar. 3, 2025
The Tower of Babel remained as incomplete as the Winchester Mystery House.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 14, 2023
My nightly mountains of homework made the Tower of Babel look like a toothpick, and it was only worsened by my late shifts at Finnegan’s.
From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia
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.
