gabble
/ˈɡæbəl/verb, noun
gabble is a verb meaning “To talk fast, idly, foolishly, or without meaning” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled G-A-B-B-L-E, and it appears about once in every 30 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does gabble mean?
verb
- 1
To talk fast, idly, foolishly, or without meaning.
- 2
To utter inarticulate sounds with rapidity.
gabbling fowls
noun
- 1
Confused or unintelligible speech.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce gabble?
- /ˈɡæbəl/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-gabble.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of gabble
- gabbles present, singular, he/she/it
- gabbling participle, present
- gabbled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is gabble?
Gabble appears about once in every 30 million words in written English, the 165,739th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Gabble in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does gabble come from?
From gab + -le. Cognate with Saterland Frisian gabbelje (“to mock”), Dutch gabbelen (“to chatter, babble”), German Low German gabbeln (“to mock”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).