balbuciar
Portuguese, verb/baw.bu.siˈa(ʁ)/
balbuciar is spelled B-A-L-B-U-C-I-A-R (9 letters) and appears about once in every 10 million words in written Portuguese, the 99,585th most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Balbuciar is a Portuguese verb meaning “babble (to utter words indistinctly)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “falar de maneira confusa, sem ter conhecimento do assunto, gaguejar”.
What does balbuciar mean in English?
verb
- 1
babble (to utter words indistinctly)
- 2
babble (to talk much)
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
verb: 1. falar de maneira confusa, sem ter conhecimento do assunto, gaguejar 2. articular as palavras com hesitação e dificuldade
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of balbuciar
- balbucio first-person present singular
- balbuciei first-person preterite singular
- balbuciado participle past
- balbuciares infinitive second-person singular
- balbuciarmos first-person infinitive plural
- balbuciardes infinitive plural second-person
- balbuciarem infinitive plural third-person
- balbuciando gerund
- balbuciados masculine participle past
- balbuciada feminine participle past
- balbuciadas feminine participle past
- balbucias indicative present second-person
- balbucia indicative present singular
- balbuciamos first-person indicative plural
- balbuciais indicative plural present
- balbuciam indicative plural present
- balbuciava first-person imperfect indicative
- balbuciavas imperfect indicative second-person
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce balbuciar?
- Brazil /baw.bu.siˈa(ʁ)/
- Brazil [baʊ̯.bu.siˈa(h)]
- Brazil /baw.buˈsja(ʁ)/
Sources: English Wiktionary, Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to balbuciar
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is balbuciar in Portuguese?
balbuciar appears about once in every 10 million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).