mumble
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To speak unintelligibly or inaudibly.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
muhmbuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmʌmbəl
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitiveintransitive
To speak unintelligibly or inaudibly; to fail to articulate.
To chew something gently with closed lips.
noun
A quiet or unintelligible vocalization; a low tone of voice.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To speak unintelligibly or inaudibly; to fail to articulate.
Used this way, mumble is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Critical but measured
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A game in which players throw or flip a jackknife in various ways so that the knife sticks in the ground.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to speak unintelligibly or inaudibly
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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.