bubble

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“
The size of the bubble is the population, and on this axis here I put fertility rate.

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Definitions (45)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (16)

  1. noun A thin, usually spherical or hemispherical film of liquid filled with air or gas: a soap bubble.
  2. noun A globular body of air or gas formed within a liquid: air bubbles rising to the surface.
  3. noun A pocket formed in a solid by air or gas that is trapped, as during cooling or hardening.
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Examples (40)

  • The size of the bubble is the population, and on this axis here I put fertility rate. —  Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen
  • Can't shake that sinking feeling that the bubble is about to burst? —  Montreal Simon
  • Simply because a bubble is a bubble and needs many many many years to retouch the previous highs! —  Home
  • The presence of the bubble was a major source of intense anxiety for many decision makers and members of the public on the weekend after the accident. —  Web Edition | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
  • By definition, a bubble is an economic disequilibrium caused by the excessive creation of money in relation to the intrinsic value of the asset class to which the money is drawn. —  Mises Dailies
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

dome ·  cloud ·  wave ·  foam ·  spray ·  balloon ·  explosion ·  crystal ·  globe ·  sphere ·  particle ·  ripple

Used in the same contextWord Family

bubble:   bubbles ·  bubbling ·  bubbled
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Middle English bubelen, to bubble.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. First in early modern English; = Middle Low German bubbele, Low German bubbel = Middle Dutch bobbel = Danish boble = Swedish bubbla, formerly bubla, a bubble. The English and Scandinavian forms are prob. of Low German origin, but all, like the equivalent early modern English burble (see burble), Latin bulla (see bulla, bull, boil, etc.), Sanskrit budbuda, Hindustani budbudā, bulbulā, Hindi bulūlā, Pāli bubbulam, a bubble (and, more remotely, like Bohemian boubel, bublina, Polish bãbel, later Little Russian bombel, a bubble—words having the same ult. base as bomb, bombus, q. v.), are prob. ult. imitative of the sound of the gurgling of water in which bubbles are forming. Cf. blubber, blobber, blob. The senses of ‘a trifle, delusion, trick,’ etc., proceed naturally from the literally sense, and have no orig. connection with the accidentally similar Italian bubbola, bubula, a trick, fib, sham, deceit, plural bubbole, idle stories, formerly “bubole, bubbule, toies, iests, vanities, nifles, trifles, bubbles” (Florio), from bubbolarc, cheat, trick, rob, formerly “bubolare, to bubble” [i. e., cheat, gull, dupe] (Florio), from bubbola, bubula, formerly bubola, pupola, puppula, a hoopoe (see hoop, hoopoe, upupa), the figure of speech being the same as the verbs gull and dupe, q. v.
  2. = Middle Low German Low German bubbeln = Middle Dutch, Dutch bobbelen = Danish boble, bubble; from the noun.
  3. Also bibble; cf. bubble and blubber.
 

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/ˈbəbl/
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