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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:

In a statement on Thursday, Lauren Edwards said: "I have recently been made aware of a small number of tweets that I posted on twitter from over a decade ago, which I now deeply regret."

From BBC Aug. 8, 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 Twitter logo began a transition to X last week, shortly after Musk tweeted: “and soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 31, 2023

“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk tweeted Sunday.

From Seattle Times Jul. 24, 2023

In one of the big red oaks, a small screech owl started his eerie twitter.

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls

Much of that influence comes via X, formerly Twitter, the social media platform that Musk bought outright in 2022.

From BBC Jul. 27, 2026

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

“The El Segundo Times were very eager to dox where my children sleep; they thought that was newsworthy,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 13, 2026

Gracias has invested in all of Musk’s projects, including Tesla, Neuralink, The Boring Company, the Twitter acquisition, and xAI, and served on multiple boards.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 11, 2026

Now on the city streets, the kids looked like American kids, busy with their cell phones, scrolling through Twitter and Facebook.

From "How Dare the Sun Rise" by Sandra Uwiringiyimana

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

He smiles, she twitters, and the next day the newspapers are headlining, “Who’s That Girl?”

From Time Nov. 22, 2011

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

From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

Shorebirds twittered and blue-gray waves lapped and whooshed, bringing the sounds of the beach to the Central Valley.

From New York Times Apr. 3, 2023

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

The highlight was a rare 19th-century pocket watch, whose face was dotted with pearls and rubies and concealed a pop-up bird, slightly larger than a thumbnail, that twittered and sang.

From Seattle Times Jul. 20, 2019

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

“Get out there, Riccio!” he twittered, imitating Hornet.

From "The Thief Lord" by Cornelia Funke

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

Today’s readers, used to the twittering demotic of our age, may need to adjust to this titanic prose-poem’s leisurely, mandarin style.

From Washington Post Mar. 9, 2022

Some kind of bird started twittering in a tree farther down the road, otherwise all was silent.

From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl

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