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chatter

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The vocalisations of different birds or other animals.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

chater

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtʃætɚ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Talk, especially meaningless or unimportant talk.

  2. Noisy talk

  3. The sound of talking.

  4. The vocalisations of various birds or other animals.

  5. The vocalisations of a Eurasian magpie, Pica pica.

  6. One who chats.

verb

  1. Talk socially without exchanging too much information

  2. intransitive

    To talk idly.

  3. To utter sounds which somewhat resemble language, but are inarticulate and indistinct.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The vocalisations of various birds or other animals.

Used this way, chatter is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • claver , rarer, so it draws attention
  • yack , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use chatter

  • “The magpies were chattering in the trees.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

idle chatterteeth chatterexcited chatterconstant chatterchatter like

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • chatter marknounCompound term

    Marks on a glaciated rock caused by the movement of a glacier.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

noun

Sense: talk or especially meaningless or unimportant talk

cackle

verb

Sense: talk socially without exchanging too much information

chafferRaregossipprateRare

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.