SPUTTER Synonyms: 40 Similar and Opposite Words

sputter

verb

ˈspə-tər

Definition of sputter

as in to drool

to speak rapidly, inarticulately, and usually unintelligibly she was so shocked that, for a moment, all she could do was sputter

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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 sputter Oil prices fell Monday even as diplomatic efforts to end the US-Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz sputtered. — Brendan Ruberry, semafor.com, 3 Aug. 2026 The redshirt junior signal caller sputtered to start the first half of 2025, but by November, Manning was one of the best quarterbacks in the country and should carry that over into this year. — Austin Perry Outkick, FOXNews.com, 25 July 2026 With fighting flaring again and diplomacy appearing to sputter, both sides made moves suggesting an escalation was possible. — Julia Frankel, Los Angeles Times, 24 July 2026 Last season was a different situation, as the eventual champion Las Vegas Aces sputtered for the first two-thirds of the regular season before ending it on a 16-game winning streak. — Sabreena Merchant, New York Times, 20 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for sputter

Recent Examples of Synonyms for sputter

Verb

Who had broken a wrist on the back-yard flagstones, drooled cherry medicine down her sleeping face on the car ride back from the hospital.

— Emma Cline, New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2026
Stuff like Caitlin Clark getting mugged with no foul being called, or Sophie Cunningham pointing at some obnoxious player, or ESPN drooling over a coach wearing a pro-trans shirt.

— Zach Dean OutKick, FOXNews.com, 6 Aug. 2026

Definition of drool

Verb

In a building where people survived by shouting over each other, the biggest man was the quietest.

— Jeff Rabhan, Rolling Stone, 14 Aug. 2026
Styles’s fourth album revels in all those hours spent shouting euphoria into the ears of friends on dance floors and riding the bassy, body-vibrating techno loops until well after the sun comes up.

— Vogue, Vogue, 14 Aug. 2026

Definition of shout

Verb

There’s precious little room here for expansion, something that has led to chatter from time to time about a possible move away from west London’s Shepherd’s Bush district.

— Richard Sutcliffe, New York Times, 13 Aug. 2026
If Hollywood is quick to take a bite out of an injured party, the town’s Mandarins and chattering classes are equally swift to offer advice, solicited or not.

— Dominic Patten, Deadline, 6 Aug. 2026

Definition of chatter

Verb

This was 1872, and the pious (and patronizing) commentators of the time muttered that Damien’s unvarnished personality was due to his simple farm upbringing in rural Belgium.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 20 July 2026
Wilde read on social media that the tune actually inspired a movie theater meet-cute, as Nash mutters profanity mid-song.

— Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 11 July 2026

Definition of mutter

Verb

But when the disheveled, withdrawn ex-friend shows up in the locker room gibbering about an evil spirit, Sam is mortified, impulsively knocking to the ground the grungy-looking Mason jar that Tamira has been carrying around.

— Dennis Harvey, Variety, 18 Sep. 2023
For a while, police interest bent toward a Phud who had been warned he might be eliminated from the program, who had seemed almost exultant about the fire and gibbered gleefully about the media spotlight.

— New York Times, New York Times, 13 Apr. 2018

Definition of gibber

Verb

Some officials have accused Kyiv of trying to rattle the Russian public with talk of a mobilization.

— ABC News, ABC News, 12 Aug. 2026
In a high-stakes gambit, Ellison is weighing moving Paramount’s operations to Tennessee or Texas, which has rattled an industry already reeling from thousands of job losses.

— Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of rattle

Verb

Strikes between the United States and Iran have been ongoing after a stuttering ceasefire.

— Fernando Cervantes Jr, USA Today, 31 July 2026
Dog Days, a fusion of memoir, criticism, psychoanalysis, and even scientific theory, makes this stuttering sensation its structuring principle, as the book changes forms and perspectives, doubles back.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 30 July 2026

Definition of stutter

Browse Nearby Words

sputa

sputter

sputtered

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“Sputter.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sputter. Accessed 19 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of sputter

verb

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