cackles 1 of 2

noun

plural of cackle
as in chuckles
an explosive sound that is a sign of amusement erupted in a high-pitched cackle at the absurdity of the suggestion

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

cackles

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of cackle
1
as in chats
to engage in casual or rambling conversation a group of old friends who met regularly to laugh and cackle about their glory days

Synonyms & Similar Words
2
as in laughs
to show mirth with an explosive vocal sound she cackled with glee when her tax-evading neighbor finally got caught

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of cackles
Noun
Her performance presents as camp, but her dynamic range of loud cackles and quiet glances is fabulous. — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug. 2026 One minute later, cackles rippled through my eardrums at a higher decibel than before. — Literary Hub, 15 Apr. 2026 As evening falls, the clink of pints and bursts of cackles spill from Pat Collins Pub—where locals swap stories to the rhythm of fiddle tunes beneath an Irish twilight. — Lewis Nunn, Forbes.com, 24 Aug. 2025
Verb
Aegon cackles with glee as Tyland ducks to the ground and his enemies snap, crackle, pop in the night. — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 3 Aug. 2026 SpongeBob cackles on a television lodged behind shatterproof glass. — Ashley Andreou, STAT, 22 June 2026 Kōnane cackles with the frayed voice of a centuries-old elder. — Matt Negrin, Rolling Stone, 20 Sep. 2025 But her signature cackles always give up the game. — Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cackles
  1. chuckles
  2. chats
  3. laughs
  4. giggles
  5. talks
  6. screams
  7. snickers
  8. converses
Noun
  • Wickersham says, with only the slightest of chuckles, that every quarterback is something of a sociopath and likens them to politicians in the middle of a race.
    — Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 11 Sep. 2026
  • Brian Leonard’s smartly funny ode to his difficult daughter — a child whose behavior was so problematic, the family cycled through 28 therapists — offers plenty of chuckles, even with key questions left unanswered.
    — Frederick Melo, Twin Cities, 10 Aug. 2026
Definition of chuckles
Verb
  • Shuenemeyer regularly chats with other arborists from Maine to Washington, looking to identify and catalog historic varieties of apples.
    — Kevin Strong, CBS News, 10 Aug. 2026
  • Some of the German Telegram chats date back to at least 2020, court documents show.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 8 July 2026
Definition of chats
Verb
  • Rubin laughs—they’d even leave some of the Mario Badescu Drying Lotion on her face.
    — Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 4 Sep. 2026
  • A couple of audience members nervously crack jokes to break the tension, but no one laughs.
    — Jeff Weiss, HollywoodReporter, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of laughs
Noun
  • Her giggles kept interrupting the tune through much of her performance, and soon Pioneer Hall was laughing with her and cheering her through it.
    — Nick El Hajj, Des Moines Register, 18 Aug. 2026
  • Meanwhile, donning night-vision giggles, Knoxville gleefully attacks them with trash can lids and tasers.
    — Tim Grierson, Vulture, 11 Aug. 2026
Definition of giggles
Verb
  • For the final episode of our 2026 season, Mike talks with Adam Erlich Sachs (recipient of a 2026 Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction) about the historical Kantian thicket of Heinrich von Kleist’s Michael Kohlhaas, translated by Michael Hoffman.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 9 Sep. 2026
  • Nolte’s expressive eyes and face do a lot of the work in each scene as Alice talks.
    — Carole Horst, Variety, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of talks
Verb
  • The 30-year-old former France international has spent most of his career on the wing and hardly screams ‘oven-ready solution’ either.
    — Patrick Boyland, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2026
  • Hathaway screams into a walkie talkie, encouraging them to jump out of the building.
    — Ethan Shanfeld, Variety, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of screams
Noun
  • As executed, the 2019 show is an emotional yet refreshingly unsentimental black comedy that snickers in the face of empowerment buzzwords like, well, healing journey.
    — Judy Berman, Time, 11 Aug. 2026
  • There were snickers from some of the other students, including a tall and lank-haired kid whose name Adele didn’t know.
    — Jonathan Franzen, New Yorker, 1 June 2026
Definition of snickers
Verb
  • Entire product categories that were barely imaginable in 2020 are now weekend projects such as a tutor that converses in Mandarin, a paralegal that drafts and redlines, and a designer that produces forty variations before lunch.
    — Michael Wee, Forbes.com, 3 Aug. 2026
  • Epstein converses with Summers Larry Summers, Clinton’s Treasury secretary and the director of the National Economic Council under former President Obama, corresponded with Epstein numerous times via email.
    — Max Rego, The Hill, 13 Nov. 2025
Definition of converses

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Cite this Entry

“Cackles.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cackles. Accessed 13 Sep. 2026.

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