Word
gibberish
Phoneticsgib·ber·ish, stress on the first syllable
US/ˈɡɪbɝɪʃ/
UK/dʒˈɪbəɹɪʃ/
Definitions
01meaningless speech
B2 · Upper Intermediate Uncountable noun Informal
n. words that make no sense, like when someone is talking in their sleep or a computer makes a mistake.
n. speech or writing that is incoherent, meaningless, or unintelligible. Uncountable in this sense.
“The fever made him talk gibberish all through the night.”
“The corrupted file displayed nothing but gibberish on the screen, making it impossible for the technicians to recover the original text.”
02confusing jargon
C1 · Advanced Uncountable noun Informal
n. language that is so technical or complicated that you cannot understand it.
n. needlessly obscure or overly technical language that fails to communicate meaning to the listener.
“The legal contract was full of technical gibberish that I couldn't follow.”
“The manual was written in such dense technical gibberish that even the experienced engineers struggled to perform the basic setup.”
Synonyms
Antonyms
03unintelligible
C2 · Proficiency Informal
adj. describing something that is impossible to understand or makes no sense.
adj. unintelligible, incoherent, or lacking in meaning. Used attributively to describe speech or text.
“He left a gibberish voicemail that sounded like he was in a noisy crowd.”
“The witness provided a gibberish account of the events, which the detectives immediately dismissed as a fabrication.”
Synonyms
Real-World Examples
“A sleeptalker is far more likely to speak gibberish than a real secret.” “As he worked to reverse-engineer samples of WannaCry on Friday, MalwareTech discovered that the ransomware's programmers had built it to check whether a certain gibberish URL led to a live web page.” Etymology
First attested mid-16th century. Origin obscure. Possibly from *gibber, of onomatopoeic origin imitating to the sound of chatter, possibly from or influenced by jabber, + -ish denoting the name of a language (compare English, Finnish, Spanish, etc.). The verb gibber, first attested circa 1600, is usually regarded as a back-formation from gibberish.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Related words
- Exam level
- CambridgeCambridgeCambridge English QualificationsThe exam suite from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, from A1 Movers up to C2 Proficiency. The benchmark names double as CEFR labels.B2 FirstIELTSIELTSInternational English Language Testing SystemThe 0–9 band test co-owned by the British Council, IDP, and Cambridge. Used for university entry, work, and migration.5.5–6.5TOEFL iBTTOEFL iBTTest of English as a Foreign Language, Internet-Based TestETS's academic English test, the standard route for US university admissions. Scored 0–120, with a 1–6 scale since 2026.1–6 scale: 4.0–4.572–94TOEICTOEICTest of English for International CommunicationETS's workplace English test, big in Japan and Korea. Listening & Reading scores 10–990 and tops out at C1.785–944
- Frequency
- Occasional
- Level
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Updated
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