Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A confusion of sounds or voices. See Synonyms at noise.
- n. A scene of noise and confusion.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The Semitic name of the city (Babylon) where, according to Gen. xi., the construction of a tower that would reach to heaven was attempted, and where the confusion of tongues took place. See Babylonian. Hence A lofty structure.
- n. A visionary scheme.
- n. A scene of noise and confusion, as a great city or a riotous assemblage.
- n. [cap. or lowercase] A confused mixture of sounds; confusion; disorder.
Wiktionary
- n. Alternative form of Babel.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The city and tower in the land of Shinar, where the confusion of languages took place.
- n. Hence: A place or scene of noise and confusion; a confused mixture of sounds, as of voices or languages.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (Genesis 11:1-11) a tower built by Noah's descendants (probably in Babylon) who intended it to reach up to heaven; God foiled them by confusing their language so they could no longer understand one another
- n. a confusion of voices and other sounds
Etymologies
- After Babel . (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“When I translated the Thomas line in babel fish, it came up with Thomas is more Lugner.”
“They speak a babel of languages: Czech, Romanian, Bulgarian,”
“Zero, LaTeX has the "babel" package for almost any language you might want to write in.”
“Heaven help many a young attorney in this "babel" of money-getting.”
“yes, nimrod probably built the tower of "babel" quite fitting already to reach heaven. brilliant fellow, i'd imagine.”
I'm assailed in the local paper for failing to take the 9/11 truthers seriously.
“The following sites are in German and can be crudely translated by babel. altavista.com:”
“They need a tool that translates the right wing language to truth. – add it to babel fish .. it would be a simple enough code to right .. just take the reverse of whatever they say ..”
Think Progress » Stupak receives death threats after voting for health reform.
“Ashore there was a clamor for Scundoo, and the whole population crowded his door, entreating and imploring in confused babel till he came forth and raised his hand.”
“I also think that traffic stands above the rest of those civics lecture/political films like syriana, babel and certainly crash, I love the style its shot in and I think its engaging emotionally rather than just berating you for a couple of hours”
“A ship manned by lascars must have been a kind of floating babel.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘babel’.
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Words that are also movies
Unabashedly stolen from a comment made by courier12.
vertigo, serendipity, casablanca, psycho, jaws, fantasia, stagecoach, network, rocky, giant, platoon, unforgiven and 285 more...
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SECOND LETTER A
Words in which the second letter is A
Aa, AAA, Baba, Babe, Babel, AAAA, tangential, baby, bach, back, bad, bade and 90 more...
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Postscripture ✞
Terms associated with the Christianity, The Bible, etc. I have a related, but more narrow list called Imbible Code.
A related list is Words Associated With Jesus.apostole, pharaoh, sodom, babel, sabbath, baptize, cherub, elohim, lapsarian, crucifixion, nephilim, hosanna and 195 more...
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Confusually
???????????????????
baffle, farrago, confound, befuddle, daze, disorient, discombobulate, stupefy, perplex, mystify, bewilder, boggle and 134 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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religion
who is this god person, anyway? (--Douglas Adams)
sachristy, vestry, diocese, papal, cardinal, pope, polygamy, seven, father, chaplain, vestments, blessing and 227 more...
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The Pain of Texting
Words that are a pain in the ass to type in on a numerical keypad on a cell phone because they have consecutive letters that share the same button:
2 - ABC
3 - DEF
4 - GHI...defcon, hi, no, attitude, xylophone, on, monday, monkey, mono, dig, back, babble and 212 more...
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Enigmatic Places
matawan creek, tunguska, loch ness, uluru, marianas trench, lake vostok, xibalba, bermuda triangle, machu pichu, nazca, roswell, garden of eden and 28 more...
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Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV
Words from the songs of Frank Black, a.k.a. Black Francis
zugzwang, valhalla, montalvo, ishist, tritons, mosh, siam, llano del rio, protohuman, tumbleweeds, ludwigshafen, ballyhoos and 349 more...
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A Long, Strange Trip
You'll definitely need a map. Inspired by Son of Groucho's comment on Islets of Langerhans.
slough of despond, pit of despair, den of iniquity, islets of langerhans, hippocampus, boulevard of brok..., canals of hering, hesselbach's tria..., crypts of lieberkühn, angle of louis, circle of willis, traube's space and 102 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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states of mind: from absurdistan to zion
Countries, lands, cities that capture, or haunt, our dreams. Some of the places listed might be the names of actual localities, but here they are states of mind.
absurdistan, banana republic, utopia, mitteleuropa, new jerusalem, deseret, canaan, zion, ruritania, outer slobovia, lower slobovia, avalon and 126 more...
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Into the mix
A medley of mixtures, mostly ones where the constituents are still distinct. I tagged kinds of stew.
mixture, commixture, admixture, intermixture, intermingling, commingling, mingling, marriage, union, integration, syncretion, permutation and 129 more...
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Ancient Borders
This is really a Vanished Lands II (the owner of the original having vanished himself). I am stealing also, however, from Transtemporal AAA, Places - real and imagined, and States of mind.
...manchuria, nubia, abyssinia, persia, caucasus, albion, byzantium, gaul, jurchen, uruk, ئۇيغۇر, tunguz and 107 more...
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jaden's Words
countermand, reconcile, pervasive, inherent, dichotomy, ancillary, tenuous, viable, potentate, gestalt, esoteric, ephemeral and 136 more...
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nfk9595's Words
magnetohydrodynamics, bovine, epistle, gargantuan, kerfuffle, verbiage, morose, coup de main, elan, achtung, uber, verboten and 497 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for babel.
skipvia "Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation." Douglas Adams, Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy Dec 20, 2007