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scramble

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To move hurriedly to a location.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

skrambuhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈskɹæmbəl

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.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To move hurriedly to a location, especially by using all limbs against a surface.

  2. transitiveof food ingredientsusually including egg

    To thoroughly combine and cook as a loose mass.

  3. intransitive

    To proceed to a location or an objective in a disorderly manner.

  4. transitive

    To struggle eagerly with others for something thrown upon the ground; to go down upon all fours to seize something; to catch rudely at what is desired.

  5. transitive

    To process telecommunication signals to make them unintelligible to an unauthorized listener.

    “Scramble the message so that nobody can understand it.”

  6. transitive

    To gather or collect by scrambling.

noun

  1. A dish (meal) involving scrambled eggs and a hodgepodge of complementary ingredients, usually closer to a casserole than to an omelette.

  2. A rush or hurry, especially making use of the limbs against a surface.

  3. A motocross race.

  4. A venue where enslaved people were auctioned during the Atlantic slave trade.

  5. Any frantic period of competitive activity.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To move hurriedly to a location, especially by using all limbs against a surface.

Used this way, scramble 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
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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

More ways to use scramble

  • “Scramble the message so that nobody can understand it.”verb
  • “The friend scrambled after them.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

scramble throughscramble back

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • scrambled eggsnounCompound term

    Eggs beaten and cooked to a soft firm consistency while stirring.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to move hurriedly to a location

skinjumble

Antonyms

Sense: to move hurriedly to a location

unscrambleRare

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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.