stammers

verb

present tense third-person singular of stammer
as in stutters
to speak with many pauses and repetitions He stammers when he's nervous.

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

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 stammers The fountain stammers and falls, motion-activated, playing to the crowd. — Karl Kirchwey, The New York Review of Books, 13 Nov. 2025 Valentina tells Carol, who then stammers over her own words. — Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for stammers
  1. stutters
  2. mumbles
Verb
  • Set beneath a gorgeous sun at what may either be dawn or dusk, this sea occasionally stutters and reverses before continuing to roll all over again.
    — Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 30 Sep. 2026
  • What worked fine at home suddenly stutters and stalls on the road.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 30 June 2026
Definition of stutters
Verb
  • The teen, bare-chested with unkempt hair under an askew cap, mumbles through a half-hearted apology and refuses to remove his ostentatious sunglasses when asked by the interviewer.
    — Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 5 Nov. 2026
  • My brother looks at the floor, mumbles something, and then shuffles away from the table.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 17 Sep. 2026
Definition of mumbles

Browse Nearby Words

stammering
stammers
stamp
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Stammers.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/stammers. Accessed 11 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 valorous

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

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

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
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