Chatterjabberyap

Open wide for words that mean meaningless talk

Jan 06, 2025

Sometimes my mouth takes over. Seriously.

It did the other day. I was chatting with a friend, blathering really, bantering, blabbing, nattering, when these words for “talk” just started surfacing. 20 words later I realized how many of them have the same central open-mouth vowel /ae/. Not a single one means “talk” as in “talk seriously.” These words hang out in the playground of our language, where we swing between “jibber” and “jabber,” “chitter” and “chatter,” and “yackety-yak.” We stammer secrets, we tattle on our sibs and babble when we’re caught out, we gab with our pals, we blab to our enemies, we patter and palaver. We clack and confab and yammer and yap. We prattle, like I’m doing now. We gas and gabble.

So, on a Sunday night, my gift to you, just a fun thing: go ye forth and gab :)

Babble

Banter

Blab

Blither, blather

Chaff

Chat, chatter

Chitter-chatter

Chitchat

Clack

Confabulate

Gab

Gabble