rubble
rub·ble/ˈɹʌb.əl/noun, verb
rubble is spelled R-U-B-B-L-E: 6 letters and 2 syllables (rub·ble). It appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,228th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, rubble means “The broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of rubble is rubbles.
How many letters and syllables are in rubble?
| Letters | 6: R-U-B-B-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: rub·ble |
| In writing | 2.8 times per million words; the 16,228th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is rubble?
Rubble appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,228th 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).
How do you pronounce rubble?
- /ˈɹʌb.əl/
Rubble has 2 syllables, split rub·ble in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-rubble.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with rubble?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as rubble.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: lubber, burble.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of rubble
- rubbles plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- rubbling participle, present
- rubbled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does rubble mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry.
- 2
A mass or stratum of fragments of rock lying under the alluvium and derived from the neighbouring rock.
- 3
UKThe whole of the bran of wheat before it is sorted into pollard, bran, etc.
verb
- 1
To break down into rubble.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Rubble in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the broken remains of an object, usually rock or masonry:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | décombres, débris, gravats |
| German | Schutt |
| Portuguese | entulho, escombros |
| Spanish | escombros, desmonte, escombra |
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 rubble come from?
Inherited from Middle English rouble, rubel, robel, robeil, from Anglo-Norman *robel (“bits of broken stone”). Presumably related to rubbish, originally of same meaning (waste material, bits of stone, rubble). Ultimately presumably from Old Norse rubba (“to huddle, crowd together, heap up", possibly also "to rub, scrape”), from Proto-Germanic *rubbōną (“to rub, scrape”), related to Proto-Germanic *reufaną (“to tear”), *raubōną (“to rob, steal, plunder”), perhaps via Old French robe (English rob (“steal”)) in sense of “plunder, destroy”; see also Middle English, Middle French -el.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).