twitter
verb (used without object)
to utter a succession of small, tremulous sounds, as a bird.
[twit-er]
/ ˈtwɪt ər /
verb (used without object)
-
twitters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
twittered,
past participle, past
-
twittering
present participle
-
to utter a succession of small, tremulous sounds, as a bird.
-
to talk lightly and rapidly, especially of trivial matters; chatter.
-
to titter; giggle.
-
to tremble with excitement or the like; be in a flutter.
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Digital Technology. tweet.
verb (used with object)
-
twitters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
twittered,
past participle, past
-
twittering
present participle
Twitter
2
American
Trademark.
twitter
1
British
/ ˈtwɪtə /
verb
-
(intr) (esp of a bird) to utter a succession of chirping sounds
-
(intr) to talk or move rapidly and tremulously
-
(intr) to giggle
her schoolmates twittered behind their desks
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(tr) to utter in a chirping way
noun
-
a twittering sound, esp of a bird
-
the act of twittering
-
a state of nervous excitement (esp in the phrase in a twitter )
Twitter
2
British
/ ˈtwɪtə /
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
twittersimple
-
twitterssimple
-
have twitteredperfect
-
has twitteredperfect
-
am twitteringprogressive
-
are twitteringprogressive
-
is twitteringprogressive
-
have been twitteringperfect progressive
-
has been twitteringperfect progressive
Past
-
twitteredsimple
-
had twitteredperfect
-
was twitteringprogressive
-
were twitteringprogressive
-
had been twitteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of twitter
1325–75; Middle English twiteren (v.); akin to German zwitschern
Explanation
To twitter is to make a sound like a bird's trill or chirp. One of the nicest things about spring is the sound of birds as they twitter in the trees. Tweet tweet! When birds twitter, they make a staccato, musical chirping sound. You can call this sound itself a twitter too. Sometimes the word is used to describe a similar sound made by chattering humans. In the fourteenth century, the word was twiteren, developed from an imitation of the sound that twittering birds make. Twitter is also a social media website founded in 2006, on which people post 140-character bursts of information called tweets. Wonder where they got that idea.
Vocabulary lists containing twitter
"Terrible Things"
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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:
“You dare block me on twitter... see my next move,” said one.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2024
“LD check twitter asap,” Magee texted Donovan, “and prob fire your barber.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2024
“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk posted on the site.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 24, 2023
“Soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” he wrote.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2023
The vireos twitter as they carry food to their nestlings.
From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
We’re all taking our private experiences and packaging them up for public consumption on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and Reddit, and I think we gain something from that, or we wouldn’t do it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
Before Musk bought Twitter, Robinson—whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon—had been banned from the platform for posts deemed to be “hateful conduct.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
On the latest episode of ICYMI, host Kate Lindsay discusses why TikTok is starting to feel like Twitter in the worst way.
From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2026
It was then and remained so even at the height of blogs and Weird Twitter.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
Either way, I fill her in on everything I already searched for on Twitter.
From "What If It's Us" by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
Looking like a miniature killer whale, it twitters in flight.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 16, 2020
We startle a chunky little woodcock that's sheltering in the long grass and it twitters its indignation shrilly.
From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2020
A small, pearly ensemble twitters, pipes up, coils, sings and surges over the bells, as a piano provides a rich, mellow grounding.
From New York Times ● Oct. 28, 2016
In an age of 24/7 rolling news, blogs and twitters, we are on constant call wherever we are.
From Time ● Feb. 22, 2012
Gran twitters on for another five minutes, filling me in on mundane news: Heather has decided she wants to become a librarian.
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
As the orange ball of the sun rose on the horizon and birds twittered in the eucalypti, Baumgarten showed up—a fit, poised, attractive guy in his 40s.
From Golf Digest ● Apr. 2, 2020
He twittered on about last night’s screening, then asked me to think of a piece to write for Vogue, so that’s a relief.
From MSNBC ● Nov. 15, 2017
He shows how observing the nesting larks that twittered above 'no man's land' and natural cycles such as the seasons gave a sense of renewal, and how animal 'troops' were inspirationally loyal.
From Nature ● Nov. 15, 2016
So it went Wednesday when word leaked and twittered out that Roger Federer had changed his mind and schedule, and would be joining Stan Wawrinka for Switzerland’s first-round tie in Serbia.
From New York Times ● Jan. 30, 2014
And even then, in the quiet darkness inside the caravan, the pretty bird chuckled and twittered and trilled, and, once, it even hooted like a little owl.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
It helps nurture a slower, older way of life, with pocket flocks and modest dairy herds enclosed by thick hedgerows foaming with cow parsley and twittering songbirds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026
On a long low wall alongside the Liangshui river in Beijing, a trader has several small cages with tiny twittering birds.
From BBC ● Dec. 28, 2025
And the twittering masses erupted in debate again hours later when the Los Angeles Police Department announced it was not investigating the matter because Rock had declined to pursue criminal charges.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 28, 2022
Unsurprisingly, birdsong dominates, but so do wind and waves; symphonies of springtime twittering segue abruptly into the whines of a distant fox.
From New York Times ● Jan. 14, 2022
“What have we become, when kings and high lords must dance to the twittering of sparrows?”
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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.
