jabberwocky
Americannoun
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a playful imitation of language consisting of invented, meaningless words; nonsense; gibberish.
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an example of writing or speech consisting of or containing meaningless words.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of jabberwocky
Coined in 1871 by Lewis Carroll ( def. ) in “Jabberwocky,” poem in Through the Looking Glass; nonsensical formation perhaps inspired by jabber ( def. ); claimed around 1883 by Carroll to mean “the result of much excited and voluble discussion” and derive from jabber + Old English wocer, wocor “fruit, offspring,” also “increase, usury”
Explanation
Jabberwocky is nonsense or gibberish — words that don't really mean anything. Your mom might comment on the music you like by saying, "It just sounds like jabberwocky to me." The made-up language you share with your sister can be described as jabberwocky, and so can the meaningless babble coming out of a toddler's mouth. The noun jabberwocky comes from a poem by the same name that Lewis Carroll included in his book "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There," which he wrote in 1871. The poem is full of colorful nonsense words, including the word jabberwocky itself.
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 company also canceled an internal project code-named Jabberwocky and two other external games that were early in development.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 4, 2023
His linguistic universe, with its “covfefe,” big-league malapropisms, and contradictory pronouncements, often seems to come straight out of Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem "Jabberwocky."
From Salon • Jul. 28, 2018
In 2014, ATP announced Jabberwocky, which was due to take place in August.
From The Guardian • May 6, 2016
I did poems in the style of the Jabberwocky.
From The New Yorker • Oct. 11, 2015
Doubtless the best and best-known example of versified words without meaning is "Jabberwocky."
From A Nonsense Anthology by Wells, Carolyn
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.
