overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

totter.

To walk, move or stand unsteadily or falteringly; threatening to fall.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈtɒtə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈtɑtɚ/General-American

  1. To walk, move or stand unsteadily or falteringly; threatening to fall.

    intransitive
    The baby tottered from the table to the chair.
    The old man tottered out of the pub into the street.

  2. To be on the brink of collapse.

    figuratively · intransitive

  3. To collect junk or scrap.

    archaic · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English totren, toteren, from earlier *tolteren (compare dialectal English tolter (“to struggle, flounder”); Scots tolter (“unstable, wonky”)), from Old English tealtrian (“to totter, vacillate”), from Proto-Germanic *taltrōną, a frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *taltōną (“to sway, dangle, hesitate”), from Proto-Indo-European *del-, *dul- (“to shake, hesitate”). Cognate with Dutch touteren (“to tremble”), Norwegian dialectal totra (“to quiver, shake”), North Frisian talt, tolt (“unstable, shaky”). Related to tilt.

noun/ˈtɒtə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈtɑtɚ/General-American

  1. An unsteady movement or gait.

    intransitive

  2. A rag and bone man.

    archaic · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English totren, toteren, from earlier *tolteren (compare dialectal English tolter (“to struggle, flounder”); Scots tolter (“unstable, wonky”)), from Old English tealtrian (“to totter, vacillate”), from Proto-Germanic *taltrōną, a frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *taltōną (“to sway, dangle, hesitate”), from Proto-Indo-European *del-, *dul- (“to shake, hesitate”). Cognate with Dutch touteren (“to tremble”), Norwegian dialectal totra (“to quiver, shake”), North Frisian talt, tolt (“unstable, shaky”). Related to tilt.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

totter has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

totter studiototter workshello, totter

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

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.