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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

grumble.

A high thundering, rumbling or growling sound.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɡɹʌmbl̩//ˈɡɹʊmbəl/Northern-England

  1. A high thundering, rumbling or growling sound.

    onomatopoeic

  2. The sound made by a hungry stomach.

  3. A surly complaint.

    That whiner is never without a grumble to share.
Where this word comes from

Probably from Middle French grommeler, from Old French grumeler (“to murmur, grumble”), from Middle Dutch *grommelen ("to murmur, mutter, grunt"; > Modern Dutch grommelen (“to grumble”)), frequentative of Middle Dutch grommen (“to growl, grunt”). Cognate with Middle Low German grummelen (> Low German grummeln (“to grumble”)), German grummeln (“to grumble”), Norwegian dialectal grymja (“to growl, grunt”).

verb/ˈɡɹʌmbl̩//ˈɡɹʊmbəl/Northern-England

  1. To make a low, growling or rumbling noise, like a hungry stomach or certain animals.

    intransitive
    The distant thunder grumbles.

  2. To complain; to murmur or mutter with discontent; to make ill-natured complaints in a low voice and a surly manner.

    intransitive
    He grumbles about the food constantly, but has yet to learn to cook.

  3. To utter in a grumbling fashion.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Probably from Middle French grommeler, from Old French grumeler (“to murmur, grumble”), from Middle Dutch *grommelen ("to murmur, mutter, grunt"; > Modern Dutch grommelen (“to grumble”)), frequentative of Middle Dutch grommen (“to growl, grunt”). Cognate with Middle Low German grummelen (> Low German grummeln (“to grumble”)), German grummeln (“to grumble”), Norwegian dialectal grymja (“to growl, grunt”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.