cackling

verb

present participle of cackle
1
as in chatting
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

Relevance
2
as in laughing
to show mirth with an explosive vocal sound she cackled with glee when her tax-evading neighbor finally got caught

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 cackling Nury Martinez blithely mispronounced Eunisses Hernandez’s name while cackling about the first-time candidate’s challenge to Cedillo. — Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2026 No electricity, no phones, no bright screens flashing information, no cackling TV in the corner of the room. — Literary Hub, 28 Sep. 2026 The shocker, of course, is activated via remote control, held by a cackling Knoxville. — Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 26 June 2026 Without hesitation, the Thunder players merged, all cackling simultaneously. — Fred Katz, New York Times, 27 May 2026 Earlier, Mitchell’s Avdotya has attacked him with a pillow, railing and cackling. — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 23 Mar. 2026 And Winston left fans cackling with his version, which poked fun at his infamous crab leg theft from his time at Florida State University in 2014. — Skyler Caruso, PEOPLE, 4 Dec. 2025 As the backstory evolved, Calico townswoman Sarah Marshall transformed into the Green Witch on the gallows, turned her accusing neighbors into monsters with a wicked curse and vanished in a puff of smoke with a cackling laugh. — Brady MacDonald, Oc Register, 17 Sep. 2025 Hundreds of shops at CST Road are crammed along half a mile of bumpy road with cackling traffic. — Omkar Khandekar, NPR, 6 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cackling
  1. chatting
  2. laughing
  3. talking
  4. giggling
  5. conversing
  6. chuckling
  7. chattering
  8. screaming
Verb
  • And Google was sued this week by the parents of a child who allegedly suffered a psychological crisis after chatting with the Gemini AI chatbot in Google Classroom.
    — Jonathan Vanian, CNBC, 7 Nov. 2026
  • Riley countered in the government’s final rebuttal, pointing out Birchmore spent her final day searching for baby names and chatting with friends.
    — Lance Reynolds, Boston Herald, 6 Nov. 2026
Definition of chatting
Verb
  • Having lost both his friend and his horn, Norden is in shock and sunk in grief, while the human visitors walk right past him, laughing and chattering away.
    — Patrick Brzeski, HollywoodReporter, 10 Nov. 2026
  • Welch and her co-host Angie Sullivan both apologized for laughing about the joke, calling it insensitive.
    — Zoe Sottile, CNN Money, 10 Nov. 2026
Definition of laughing
Verb
  • Democrats are talking more cautiously now, and the party is rooting them on from DC.
    — David Weigel, semafor.com, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Her intentions were made clear in exchanges on social media with Bowden, who harshly criticized Honeycutt for crossing party lines, particularly for talking with Ocasio-Cortez.
    — Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of talking
Verb
  • In one photo, Ray’s sister Ruby held up the giggling infant, making kissy faces at the baby wrapped up in a blanket.
    — Shania Russell, Entertainment Weekly, 27 Oct. 2026
  • Last episode, Jelly and Devin were out there giggling on the beach like Will and Grace with sand stuck in their coochies.
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of giggling
Verb
  • McKenzie and his outfit are usually conversing with agents, advisors, business and wealth managers about who may have capital needs as opposed to individual athletes themselves.
    — Justin Birnbaum, Sportico.com, 2 Nov. 2026
  • Another image shows Pitt and Debicki conversing at a bar, while a different shot features him on a tennis court with Debicki, Caan and Gugino.
    — Ryan Gajewski, HollywoodReporter, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of conversing
Verb
  • The Tío Xavier persona that Becerra supporters have trotted out — a kind, chuckling sage — isn’t what California needs right now.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Cubs pitcher David Peterson was coming out of the bullpen to pitch in the eighth inning after the fight took place, and the umpires were chuckling.
    — Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 19 Aug. 2026
Definition of chuckling
Verb
  • Hundreds of millions of people are watching TV and YouTube closely, chattering and analyzing on social media.
    — Ben Smith, semafor.com, 3 Nov. 2026
  • The chattering and barking mammals that scamper through these woodlands rely on the pale fluid to grow fast, providing mammal pups with the raw materials to start turning the soft cartilage of their skeletons to more resilient bone.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of chattering
Verb
  • Wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who had seven catches for 133 yards and a touchdown, was screaming at coaches and teammates on the sideline at the start of the fourth quarter.
    — Joe Reedy, Chicago Tribune, 8 Nov. 2026
  • Wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who was held to seven catches for 133 yards and a touchdown, was screaming at coaches and teammates on the sideline at the start of the fourth quarter.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 7 Nov. 2026
Definition of screaming

Browse Nearby Words

cackles
cackling
cacodemon
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Cackling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cackling. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of gauntlet

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Longest Long Words List

The Words of the Week - Nov. 13

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
woman sitting on floor holding book in front of her face on pink background
Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz Needless to say, spoiler alert.
See All