bubble

CEFRB1

/ˈbʌb.l̩/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A ball of air surrounded by liquid or soap.

  2. 02

    verb

    To form or rise in round balls of air.

Examples

  • During the bubble, people dreamed of a life of leisure.

  • That's because the bubble vanished into thin air.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
4

Also pronounced

  • [ˈbʌ.bl̩]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A small spherical cavity in a solid material.

  2. Anything resembling a hollow sphere.

  3. A spherically contained volume of air or other gas, especially one made from soapy liquid.

More examples

In context

  • bubbles in window glass, or in a lens

  • dot-com bubble

  • real estate bubble

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She gently blew through the plastic ring, watching a single soapy blank float up into the sky.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Partly imitative, also influenced by burble. Compare Middle Dutch bobbe (“bubble”) > Dutch bubbel (“bubble”), Low German bubbel (“bubble”), Danish boble (“bubble”), Swedish bubbla (“bubble”). The word was first used in its economic sense in association with the collapse of the South Sea Company in 1720, based on the metaphor of an inflated soap bubble bursting.