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  • twitter
    twitter
    verb (used without object)
    to utter a succession of small, tremulous sounds, as a bird.
  • Twitter
    Twitter
    a brand name for a social media service and website where registered users may post text that is limited to a certain number of characters, as well as links, photos, or videos.
Synonyms

twitter

1 American  
[twit-er] / ˈtwɪt ər /

verb (used without object)

twitters, present (3rd person singular) twittered, past participle, past twittering present participle
  1. to utter a succession of small, tremulous sounds, as a bird.

  2. to talk lightly and rapidly, especially of trivial matters; chatter.

  3. to titter; giggle.

  4. to tremble with excitement or the like; be in a flutter.

  5. Digital Technology. tweet.


verb (used with object)

twitters, present (3rd person singular) twittered, past participle, past twittering present participle
  1. to express or utter by twittering.

noun

  1. an act of twittering.

  2. a twittering sound.

  3. a state of tremulous excitement.

    Synonyms:
    fluster, tizzy, flutter
Twitter 2 American  
Trademark.
  1. a brand name for a social media service and website where registered users may post text that is limited to a certain number of characters, as well as links, photos, or videos.


twitter 1 British  
/ ˈtwɪtə /

verb

  1. (intr) (esp of a bird) to utter a succession of chirping sounds

  2. (intr) to talk or move rapidly and tremulously

  3. (intr) to giggle

    her schoolmates twittered behind their desks

  4. (tr) to utter in a chirping way

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. a twittering sound, esp of a bird

  2. the act of twittering

  3. a state of nervous excitement (esp in the phrase in a twitter )

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Twitter 2 British  
/ ˈtwɪtə /

noun

  1. a website where people can post short messages about their current activities

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (intr; sometimes not capital) to write a short message on the Twitter website

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

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.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing twitter

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:

Altman responded on X, saying, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”

From Los Angeles Times Feb. 14, 2025

In response to the bid, Altman posted on Musk's social media platform X: "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want."

From BBC Feb. 10, 2025

This month, novelist Daniel Torday posted, “This space has become almost as unusable as twitter was. I’m out.”

From Seattle Times Mar. 29, 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

The little flock of golden birds continued to twitter in circles around her head so that she looked like a strange, feathery model of the solar system.

From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling

Twitter Democrats stuck by Platner, believing that he was a good avatar for working-class politics and that real voters wouldn’t care that he was rough around the edges.

From Slate Jul. 14, 2026

Loder then accurately predicted that Webb “might be searching his name on Twitter after the game, which is never a great look.”

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 10, 2026

Musk had bought the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022.

From BBC Jun. 11, 2026

In the years after, Gracias or Valor invested in all of Musk’s projects, including Neuralink, the Boring Company, the Twitter acquisition and xAI.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 11, 2026

I logged on to Twitter and typed Carmen Sánchez into the search box.

From "The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora" by Pablo Cartaya

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

He listened carefully for what Japanese teachers call children’s twitters — mumbled nuggets of inchoate thoughts that teachers can mold into the fully formed concept they are trying to teach.

From New York Times Jul. 23, 2014

In an age of 24/7 rolling news, blogs and twitters, we are on constant call wherever we are.

From Time Feb. 22, 2012

The teepee filled with the twitters of a bird and distant traffic.

From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

The other players twinklingly twittered as Campbell’s hand slid up and down the neck of his cello, for a woozy ondes Martenot effect.

From New York Times Apr. 22, 2022

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

Yellow-wing twittered and pranced on his perch, excited as he watched her.

From "Son" by Lois Lowry

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

On a spring day, with wildflowers blooming and birds twittering, the war can seem far away.

From Los Angeles Times May 17, 2022

“Now you don’t have time to do that, because you’re twittering, you’re tweeting, you’re instagramming, you’re over in the corner hitting your keys, and you become shriveled and testy,” he said.

From New York Times Mar. 13, 2019

Linda Cruz looked up from the magazine they were twittering over and gave me a small, polite smile.

From "It All Comes Down to This" by Karen English

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