stutter

verb

stut·ter | \ ˈstə-tər

stuttered; stuttering; stutters

Definition of stutter

(Entry 1 of 2)

intransitive verb

1 : to speak with involuntary disruption or blocking of speech (as by repetition or prolongation of vocal sounds)

2 : to move or act in a halting or spasmodic manner the old jalopy bucks and stutters uphill— William Cleary

transitive verb

: to say, speak, or sound with or as if with a stutter

stutter

noun

Definition of stutter (Entry 2 of 2)

1 : an act or instance of stuttering

2 : the habitual tendency to stutter had a mild stutter : stuttering

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Examples of stutter in a Sentence

Verb

I used to stutter when I was a child. She stutters when she gets excited.

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

Barcelona stuttered to a shock defeat in their opening La Liga clash of the season, going down 1-0 to Athletic Club after a fabulous late overhead kick from veteran striker Aritz Aduriz. — SI.com, "Athletic 1-0 Barcelona: Suarez Injury Update, Griezmann's Debut & Valverde's Reaction to Shock Loss," 17 Aug. 2019 On the Beach Boys’ message, Dennis Wilson stuttered in the studio and Tom tried not to laugh. — Bianca Gracie, Billboard, "'SpongeBob SquarePants' Voice Actor Tom Kenny, Songwriter Andy Paley & More Reflect on 20 Years of Laughter & Music," 23 July 2019 England were slowly stuttering to a goalless draw against Caribbean minnows Trinidad & Tobago until Crouch rose above his marker to head home from close range. — SI.com, "Peter Crouch: 9 of the Striker's Best Moments Following Retirement," 12 July 2019 The consequence of all these edits is that the pacing frequently stutters, and in fact sometimes grinds to a halt. — Aja Romano, Vox, "Stranger Things season 3 is charming but frustrating. Here’s a spoiler-free review.," 30 June 2019 According to the National Stuttering Association’s website, there are many different ways to approach speaking with someone who stutters. — Catie Wegman, sun-sentinel.com, "World’s largest gathering of people who stutter to meet in Fort Lauderdale," 21 June 2019 With all the momentum Djokovic, however, stuttered -- crumbling from 30-0 to trail 5-3. — Ravi Ubha, CNN, "Disgruntled Novak Djokovic exits French Open to end grand slam winning streak," 8 June 2019 Knode said that Hearn had revolutionised their lives, but when the Zone stuttered on her Apple TV he was held responsible for ruining their evening. — The Economist, "James Ellroy finally has happiness in his sights," 8 June 2019 The Red Devils' academy graduate has only started 14 league games this season, and whilst Alexis Sanchez, Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard continue to shine, his form has stuttered and his World Cup hopes have faded slightly. — SI.com, "6 of the Best Moments From the Weekend's Premier League Action as Liverpool Struggle," 12 Mar. 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Given 10 yards of cushion by CB De’Vante Bausby, Thomas used a stutter-step-and-go move to create space on Bausby. — Ryan O'halloran, The Denver Post, "10 takeaways from Broncos’ 10-6 preseason loss to Rams," 25 Aug. 2019 FrameView has been optimized particularly for detailed frame time, present, and display scheduling metrics for measuring stutter. — Brad Chacos, PCWorld, "Nvidia's GeForce RTX 'Super' cards aim to one-up AMD with more power for the same price," 2 July 2019 From stuttering to jaguars Rabinowitz grew up in New York with a severe stutter. — Steve Winter, National Geographic, "The struggle to protect a vital jaguar corridor," 21 Aug. 2019 This is fine, just awkward for any neighbors who might catch a glimpse of your stutter-stepping back into position. — Brian Barrett, WIRED, "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite," 25 June 2019 Markets stutter: With Huawei grabbing new headlines, global stocks aren't shaking their trade anxiety just yet. — Julia Horowitz, CNN, "Uber losses; Broadcom strikes a deal; Huawei's OS," 9 Aug. 2019 There were a few stutters tied to how the headset detected the controllers. — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, "5G could be the foundation of next-gen 'cloud VR'," 27 Mar. 2019 In it, a London typographer named Greenwood (Matthew Needham), who has a severe stutter, finds a connection with a woman online, in messaging, but is afraid to meet her in real life. — Sarah Larson, The New Yorker, "A Short Film of Dreamy Imagery and Mysterious Language," 2 July 2019 Hopefully its development will include significant optimizations, as the video footage shown on Monday suffered from significant frame rate stutter. — Sam Machkovech, Ars Technica, "Final Fantasy VII Remake headlines Square Enix E3 event, gets March 2020 launch," 11 June 2019

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