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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

palaver.

A village council meeting.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/pəˈlɑː.və(ɹ)/UK

  1. A village council meeting.

    Africa · countable · uncountable

  2. Talk, especially unnecessary talk; chatter.

    Canada · US · archaic · countable · uncountable

  3. Mentally draining activity, either physical or fuss.

    UK · countable · uncountable
    What a palaver!

  4. A meeting at which there is much talk; a debate; a moot.

    countable · uncountable

  5. Disagreement.

    countable · informal · uncountable
    I have no palaver with him.

  6. Talk intended to deceive.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *preh₂- Proto-Hellenic *pərai Ancient Greek πᾰρᾰ́ (părắ) Ancient Greek παρα- (para-) Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-der. Proto-Hellenic *gʷəlnō Ancient Greek βάλλω (bállō) Ancient Greek παραβάλλω (parabállō) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-ā́ Ancient Greek -ᾱ (-ā) Ancient Greek -η (-ē) Ancient Greek παραβολή (parabolḗ)bor. Late Latin parabola Old Galician-Portuguese paravla Old Galician-Portuguese palavra Portuguese palavrabor. English palaver Originally nautical slang, from Portuguese palavra (“word”), from Late Latin parabola (“parable, speech”). The term's use (especially in Africa) mimics the evolution of the word moot. As such, for sense development, see moot. Doublet of parable, parole, and parabola.

verb/pəˈlɑː.və(ɹ)/UK

  1. To discuss with much talk.

    intransitive

  2. To flatter.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *preh₂- Proto-Hellenic *pərai Ancient Greek πᾰρᾰ́ (părắ) Ancient Greek παρα- (para-) Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-der. Proto-Hellenic *gʷəlnō Ancient Greek βάλλω (bállō) Ancient Greek παραβάλλω (parabállō) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-ā́ Ancient Greek -ᾱ (-ā) Ancient Greek -η (-ē) Ancient Greek παραβολή (parabolḗ)bor. Late Latin parabola Old Galician-Portuguese paravla Old Galician-Portuguese palavra Portuguese palavrabor. English palaver Originally nautical slang, from Portuguese palavra (“word”), from Late Latin parabola (“parable, speech”). The term's use (especially in Africa) mimics the evolution of the word moot. As such, for sense development, see moot. Doublet of parable, parole, and parabola.

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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.