gibberish

noun gib·ber·ish \ ˈji-b(ə-)rish , ˈgi- \

Updated on: 15 Apr 2018

Definition of gibberish

: unintelligible or meaningless language:

a : a technical or esoteric (see esoteric 1) language

The doctors spoke to one another in their medical gibberish that I was unable to follow.

b : pretentious or needlessly obscure language

The substance of the philosopher'swork is buried in polysyllabic gibberish.

See gibberish defined for English-language learners

See gibberish defined for kids

Examples of gibberish in a Sentence

She was talking gibberish in her sleep.
was so excited he could only talk gibberish

Recent Examples of gibberish from the Web

Garcia's racing delivery converts swaths of Shakespeare to gibberish.

— charles mcnulty, latimes.com, "Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' and Shaw's 'Saint Joan': A marathon for four actors, and the audience," 9 Apr. 2018
At a quick glance, the words on the big red billboard on Independence Boulevard just look like a bunch of gibberish.

— théoden janes, charlotteobserver, "What’s the deal with this billboard on Independence Blvd.?," 31 Jan. 2018
Later, Kate McKinnon joined Ferrell in playing two octogenarians attempting to film a commercial for a roadside diner who are incapable of saying their very simple lines, resulting in very silly gibberish.

— kayla kumari upadhyaya, Billboard, "'Saturday Night Live': Will Ferrell Plays Characters Old and New in Hosting Return," 28 Jan. 2018
Even if someone broke into my home and found my list, that gibberish wouldn't make much sense to anyone.

— teresa dixon murray, cleveland.com, "How to create online passwords that are safe, unique, not stored: Money Matters," 10 Jan. 2018
While some feared that teenagers’ use of techno-gibberish would damage their language development, today’s millennials are reading more than any other generation.

— nicholas bowman, Smithsonian, "AOL Instant Messenger Taught Us How To Communicate in the Modern World," 6 Oct. 2017
Then Blake sent Tenser a link to a health website page filled with random words and phrases thrown together, like gibberish.

— scott johnson, The Hollywood Reporter, ""Murder, Mayhem and Torture" Off the Sunset Strip: The Tragic Story of the Budding Director and His Dead Girlfriend," 18 Dec. 2017
A few years later, companies like Apple and Microsoft realized that the increasingly popular Japanese emojis would appear as gibberish on their products and pushed the consortium to encode them.

— michael erard, New York Times, "How the Appetite for Emojis Complicates the Effort to Standardize the World’s Alphabets," 18 Oct. 2017
However, one attempt to reach out to these Europeans to justify the pro-Brexit position has fallen flat on its face — thanks to a rogue translation that resulted in Germanic gibberish.

— adam taylor, Washington Post, "A pro-Brexit editorial written in German has a problem: It’s literally gibberish.," 13 Sep. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'gibberish.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of gibberish

probably from gibber

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: circa 1554

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

gibberish Synonyms

Synonyms

abracadabra, babble, blabber, burble, double-talk, drivel, gabble, gibber, jabber, jabberwocky, mumbo jumbo, nonsense, prattle;

chatter, gab, patter, prate, tattle, twitter;

cackle, clack, clatter;

GIBBERISH Defined for English Language Learners

gibberish

noun

Definition of gibberish for English Language Learners

: foolish, confused, or meaningless words

GIBBERISH Defined for Kids

gibberish

noun gib·ber·ish \ ˈji-bə-rish \

Definition of gibberish for Students

: confused meaningless talk

Learn More about gibberish

Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for gibberish Spanish Central: Translation of gibberish Nglish: Translation of gibberish for Spanish speakers

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gibberish

Definition of gibberish

Examples of gibberish in a Sentence

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Origin and Etymology of gibberish

gibberish Synonyms

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