stumble
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To trip or fall.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
stuhmbuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈstʌmbəl
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
intransitive
To trip or fall; to walk clumsily.
Miss a step and fall or nearly fall
“She stumbled over the tree root.”
intransitive
To make a mistake or have trouble.
Make an error
To strike or happen (upon a person or thing) without design; to fall or light by chance; with on, upon, or against.
transitivefigurative
To mislead; to confound; to cause to err or to fall.
noun
A fall, trip or substantial misstep.
An unintentional but embarrassing blunder
An error or blunder.
A clumsy walk.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To trip or fall; to walk clumsily.
Used this way, stumble 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 stumble
- “I stumbled across a long-lost cousin last night in a restaurant.”verb
- “She stumbled over the tree root.”verb
- “The drunk man stumbled about.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Any obstacle or impediment.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: fall or trip or substantial misstep
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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.