TWITCHING Synonyms: 68 Similar and Opposite Words

twitching 1 of 2

noun

as in trembling

a series of slight movements by a body back and forth or from side to side the twitching of my cat's ears was a signal that I should stop petting her before she got any angrier

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twitching

2 of 2

verb

present participle of twitch

as in fidgeting

to make jerky or restless movements the dog twitched in her sleep

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in jerking

to move or cause to move with a sharp quick motion the rabbit twitched its nose

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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 twitching

Noun

During this phase, octopuses display visible twitching along with rapid changes in skin color and texture, per NPR. —

Samantha Agate, Miami Herald, 27 Mar. 2026 Gosnell did not testify at his 2013 trial, but his defense attorney argued that none of the fetuses were born alive and that any movements were posthumous twitching or spasms, according to the AP. —

Greg Norman-Diamond, FOXNews.com, 24 Mar. 2026 Gosnell did not testify at his 2013 trial, but his defense attorney argued that none of the fetuses was born alive and that any movements were posthumous twitching or spasms. —

ABC News, 23 Mar. 2026 The disease, which gets worse over time, starts with muscle twitching, slurred speech, or weakness in an arm or leg. —

Jason Pham, StyleCaster, 20 Feb. 2026 After 10 weeks without food, Muraisi is experiencing involuntary muscular twitching and severe chest pains, according to Prisoners for Palestine, with her doctors warning of possible cardiovascular collapse. —

Kara Fox, CNN Money, 14 Jan. 2026 Patients first experience twitching or weakness in a limb, as Decker did. —

Cara Lynn Shultz, PEOPLE, 16 Dec. 2025 The more serious side effects of caffeine overdose include trouble breathing, sudden high blood pressure, muscle twitching, confusion, vomiting and seizures. —

News Editor, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Dec. 2025

Verb

Here, American fighter planes, cargo ships and Japanese freighters have spent decades transforming into thriving artificial reefs, draped in coral and surrounded by twitching clouds of tropical fish. —

Dea Jusufi, Forbes.com, 9 May 2026 Curry’s body began convulsing and twitching with increasing severity, consistent with him sustaining a traumatic brain injury from being punched in the face, documents state. —

Deborah Laverty, Chicago Tribune, 29 Mar. 2026 Afternoon Ben Thanh Market is Hồ Chí Minh’s biggest market – a vast maze of 1,500 stalls selling everything from still-twitching fish to electronics and souvenirs. —

Tamara Hinson, Condé Nast Traveler, 27 Mar. 2026 So when an octopus starts flashing colors and twitching in its sleep, the parallels are hard to ignore. —

Samantha Agate, Miami Herald, 27 Mar. 2026 The story still lays there on the table, limp as a corpse, but freakishly still twitching. —

Jd Barker, Rolling Stone, 25 Mar. 2026 As the drugs started flowing, King began breathing heavily, his body twitching. —

David Fischer The Associated Press, Arkansas Online, 18 Mar. 2026 As the drugs started flowing, King began breathing heavily, his body twitching. —

Cbs Miami Team, CBS News, 17 Mar. 2026 Behind them a young man with a paint-flecked beard followed the designer about the set, twitching the hem of the velvet curtains hung at the window and rearranging the ornaments on the mantelpiece. —

Literary Hub, 13 Mar. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for twitching

Noun

All the trembling, as Kimbangu touched the sick, alarmed European settlers and reassured the plantation workers who trekked to Nkamba in search of healing.

— Rodney Muhumuza, Los Angeles Times, 10 Apr. 2026
At first this change of scale vivifies the butterfly—its brief stillness, the angle of its wings, its trembling—while freezing everything else, including the novel’s action.

— Ben Lerner, The New York Review of Books, 19 Mar. 2026