Chatter Meaning
/ˈtʃætə/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounTalk, especially meaningless or unimportant talk.
nounThe sound of talking.
Sentence Examples
Her continuous chatter vexes me.
I'm fed up with her chatter.
They only wrote idle chatter about her in the newspaper.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The constant ____ of the students made it hard for the teacher to speak.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I could hear the constant ____ of birds in the garden this morning.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Middle English cheteren, chiteren (Imitative)der. Middle English chateren English chatter From Middle English chateren, from earlier cheteren, chiteren (“to twitter, chatter, jabber”), of imitative origin. Compare Saterland Frisian tjoaterje (“to chatter”), West Frisian tsjotterje (“to chatter”), Dutch schateren, schetteren (“chatter”), Dutch koeteren (“jabber”), Middle Low German kidderen (“to chatter”), German Low German queteln (“to chatter”), dialectal German kaudern (“to gobble (like a turkey)”), Danish kvidre (“to twitter, chirp”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Although hardly coming under my theme, I cannot omit this: "Against a woman's chatter: Taste at night fasting a root of radish, that day the chatter cannot harm thee.""
— 1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 257:
"The hare cried and complained of the terrible February cold and the disgusting chatter of the owls[.]"
— 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 117:
"At dawn and at sunset the howler monkeys screamed together and the parakeets broke into shrill chatter, but during the hot hours of the day only the full drone of insects, like the beat of a distant surf, filled the ear, while nothing moved amid the solemn vistas of stupendous trunks, fading away into the darkness which held us in."
— 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘The Outlying Pickets of the New World’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 114:
"The wind rose as the earth darkened, so that fading chatters of woodland animals were countered by the strengthening sounds of waving trees […]"
— 2016, Cornelia F. Mutel, A Sugar Creek Chronicle, page 41:
"That teacheth trickes eleuen and twentie long, / To tame a ſhrew, and charme her chattering tongue."
— c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 222:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The constant ____ of the students made it hard for the teacher to speak.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I could hear the constant ____ of birds in the garden this morning.