cackle
Americanverb (used without object)
-
cackles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cackled,
past participle, past
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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
“The sound of her humiliating cackle still haunts me,” Morticia tells her daughter, recounting the experience of her own mom, Hester, reading one of her earlier manuscripts and shaming her for it.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2025
This invective is delivered with a sneer, a wink, and finally a cackle of laughter.
From BBC ● Mar. 23, 2025
Dafoe says with an unmistakable raspy cackle over the phone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2024
He would cackle with laughter and caper, if any jest was made, or even if Frodo spoke kindly to him, and weep if Frodo rebuked him.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
Her performance presents as camp, but her dynamic range of loud cackles and quiet glances is fabulous.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
The red-headed fairy cackles, “Your hard work didn’t pay off!”
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2025
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
"The House will be in order," she said again amid the cackles.
From Salon ● May 25, 2023
He laughed and laughed, his cackles bouncing off the walls, until finally he fell out of his chair.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
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
That evening, Arul and I sat on the bench, watching Muthu chase the little kids, who cackled and screeched.
From "The Bridge Home" by Padma Venkatraman
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
I’m not killing anyone,’ ” Yeoh says, nearly cackling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 24, 2025
These fearsome carnivores, known for their splotchy fur and cackling “laughter,” form complicated social networks in which high-ranking females hold sway over males and other, less dominant females.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 29, 2024
An arm hooks around my neck, and Darrell almost topples me over, cackling all the while.
From "King and the Dragonflies" by Kacen Callender
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.
