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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

mumble.

To speak unintelligibly or inaudibly; to fail to articulate.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈmʌmbəl//ˈmʊmbəl/Northern-England
  1. To speak unintelligibly or inaudibly; to fail to articulate.

    intransitive · transitive
    Please try not to mumble so I can hear you better.
  2. To chew something gently with closed lips.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English momelen, a frequentative of mum (sense 3) (“silent”). Compare German mümmeln, Middle Dutch mommelen and Dutch mompelen. Perhaps related to Norwegian Nynorsk mumpa (“to gum, to chew without teeth”).

noun/ˈmʌmbəl//ˈmʊmbəl/Northern-England
  1. A quiet or unintelligible vocalization; a low tone of voice.

    All I could hear was a mumble from the next room.
    He spoke in a barely comprehensible mumble.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English momelen, a frequentative of mum (sense 3) (“silent”). Compare German mümmeln, Middle Dutch mommelen and Dutch mompelen. Perhaps related to Norwegian Nynorsk mumpa (“to gum, to chew without teeth”).

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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.