cackle

American  

[kak-uhl] / ˈkæk əl /

verb (used without object)

• cackles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• cackled,
  past participle,  past
• cackling
  present participle

1. to utter a shrill, broken sound or cry, as of a hen.

2. to laugh in a shrill, broken manner.

3. to chatter noisily; prattle.

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verb (used with object)

• cackles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• cackled,
  past participle,  past
• cackling
  present participle

1. to utter with cackles; express by cackling.

   They cackled their disapproval.

noun

• cackles
  plural

1. the act or sound of cackling.

2. chatter; idle talk.

cackle British  

/ ˈkækəl /

verb

1. (intr) (esp of a hen) to squawk with shrill notes

2. (intr) to laugh or chatter raucously

3. (tr) to utter in a cackling manner

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noun

1. the noise or act of cackling

2. noisy chatter

3. informal to stop chattering; be quiet

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• cackler
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cackles
  plural

Participles

• cackling
  present
• cackled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• cackle
  simple
• cackles
  simple
• have cackled
  perfect
• has cackled
  perfect
• am cackling
  progressive
• are cackling
  progressive
• is cackling
  progressive
• have been cackling
  perfect progressive
• has been cackling
  perfect progressive

Past

• cackled
  simple
• had cackled
  perfect
• was cackling
  progressive
• were cackling
  progressive
• had been cackling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will cackle
  simple
• will have cackled
  perfect
• will be cackling
  progressive
• will have been cackling
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of cackle

1175–1225; Middle English cakelen; cognate with Dutch kakelen, Low German kakeln, Swedish kackla

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cackle cackles cackled cackling

"His laugh was outrageously infectious. We all used to call it a cackle."

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

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

In a two-storey flagship laboratory in one of the many new business hubs in Chongqing, a group of kindergarten children cackle with delight as they watch a robot fish swim around the tank.

From BBC ● May 12, 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

As I thought that, I laughed out loud, a high-pitched cackle.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

Manning’s press conference cackle was followed by the cackles of adults in the room, including reporters.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 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

As we turn the corner into his office, the cheekily self-proclaimed “horror master” cackles at the sight that greets all who dare to enter: a life-size cardboard cut-out of “Believe”-era Justin Bieber.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2023

The creature threw his head back in a laugh then, letting his airy cackles echo off the trees around them.

From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray

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

His allergies were awful, the cows circling around him while he got uncomfortable and his mom cackled in their ATV.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 27, 2022

When I told her tickets cost 20 bucks, she actually cackled.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 5, 2022

The Ancient cackled, and Ranofer leaned eagerly closer.

From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

I can practically hear those two cackling over their macchiatos.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 7, 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

But at least if we’re cackling at ourselves together in the theater, we’re less alone.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 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

And Sir Grummore began cackling in a tuneless alto, like thousands of wild geese on the Wash. “Hush! Hush!” cried Sir Palomides.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

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