Did you know?
Technobabble was formed by combining techno- (meaning "technical or technological") with babble ("continuous meaningless vocal sounds"), and unsurprisingly suggests language which sounds highly technical and is incomprehensible to the listener. Techno- as a combining form has given English speakers a number of interesting words, including but not limited to technocrat, technophile and technophobia, techno-thriller, technopreneur, and even technostructure ("the network of professionally skilled scientists, engineers, and administrators that tends to control the economy"). Techno- itself traces back to the same root word that gave us technology, namely the Greek word technē, meaning "art, craft, or practical skill."
Examples of technobabble in a Sentence
IEEE Spectrum, 31 Mar. 2024
Humans, the regulatory technobabble reveals, do the strangest things sometimes.
—Ed Niedermeyer, Rolling Stone, 17 Dec. 2023
But between the different models of each edition, their exclusive games and lots of technobabble otherwise, buying a game console is starting to feel as complex as picking a health insurance plan.
—Whitson Gordon, NBC News, 28 Oct. 2020
Lashings of technobabble aside, none of the practical or scientific material in the show seems remotely true or plausible, especially the speed at which things are supposed to happen.
—cleveland, 1 June 2020
Previous SlideNext Slide There's also very little in the way of futuristic technobabble—a hallmark of the franchise since TOS and a major factor in its enduring popularity.
—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 28 Mar. 2020
Laying down some classic Trek technobabble, Culber explains that the Klingons did something more than just torture Tyler, implanting a consciousness within him to change him into something else.
—Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, 8 Jan. 2018
Of all the narrative staples that make Star Trek feel like Star Trek—science-y technobabble, fighting with Klingons or Romulans—one of the most enjoyable has always been exploring the definition of life and how to protect it.
—Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, 9 Oct. 2017
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'technobabble.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near technobabble
Cite this Entry
“Technobabble.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technobabble. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.
Copy Citation
Share