cackle
Americanverb (used without object)
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to utter a shrill, broken sound or cry, as of a hen.
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to laugh in a shrill, broken manner.
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to chatter noisily; prattle.
verb (used with object)
noun
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the act or sound of cackling.
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chatter; idle talk.
verb
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(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
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the noise or act of cackling
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noisy chatter
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informal to stop chattering; be quiet
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cacklesimple
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cacklessimple
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have cackledperfect
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has cackledperfect
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am cacklingprogressive
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are cacklingprogressive
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is cacklingprogressive
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have been cacklingperfect progressive
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has been cacklingperfect progressive
Past
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cackledsimple
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had cackledperfect
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was cacklingprogressive
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were cacklingprogressive
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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.
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
The men heard a cackle in their headsets as the radio signal to Mission Control faltered and then failed.
From BBC • Aug. 8, 2025
He pauses: “It was ancestral spirits, whatever you want to call it,” adding with a mischievous cackle, “But not voodoo!”
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 6, 2025
The 27-year-old accomplishes this as a shining beacon of joy who earns a welcome cackle from us every Saturday night.
From Salon • Nov. 9, 2024
I dreamed of myself, limping beside him, laughing that high, horrible cackle.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
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.
