babbling

American  

[bab-ling] / ˈbæb lɪŋ /

noun

1. foolish or meaningless chatter; prattle.

   the constant babbling of idle gossips.

2. the random production of meaningless vocal sounds characteristic of infants around the age of three months.

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adjective

1. chattering or prattling aimlessly.

   The babbling crowd quieted and funneled back into the auditorium at the end of intermission.

2. making a continuous murmuring sound.

   a babbling brook.

Other Word Forms

• babblingly adverb

Etymology

Origin of babbling

First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English babelinde, bablyng; babble, -ing ¹ (for the noun senses), -ing ² (for the adjective)

Example Sentences

The phrase echoed the one I had spoken years earlier to a babbling toddler in a Baltimore church.

From Slate • Mar. 29, 2026

Haden Pentecost, 41, was working on a flight from California to London when he started to become agitated and was described as "sweating" and "babbling".

From BBC • Aug. 22, 2025

That is not to say it would have been particularly shrewd for the president to have wandered into the Rose Garden and started babbling about what a “very fine person” Luigi Mangione is.

From Slate • Apr. 1, 2025

The gang finds him holed up in a New Hampshire factory of a company Guillermo’s firm just finished gutting, babbling incoherently like Col.

From Salon • Nov. 11, 2024

I hear people moving and shifting, and some babies babbling and their mothers shushing them.

From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau