n. a series of short, high sounds made by birds. It can also describe the light, fast sound of people talking or machines working.
n. a succession of light, tremulous sounds, typically associated with birds or rapid, high-pitched human speech.
The morning twitter of birds wakes me up early.
I could hear the constant twitter of the office staff as they gathered around the coffee machine to share the weekend's news.
The silence of the forest was broken only by the occasional twitter of a hidden sparrow and the rustle of dry leaves underfoot.
From Middle English twitren, twiteren, from Old English twiterian, from Proto-West Germanic twitwiʀōn, from Proto-Germanic *twitwizōną (“to chirp; twitter”). Cognate with Low German twitteren (“to twitter”), German zwitzern, zwitschern (“to twitter”). Compare also Dutch kwetteren (“to twitter”), Danish kvidre (“to twitter”), Swedish kvittra (“to twitter”), dialectal Swedish tittra (“to twitter”).
Origin unknown; possibly related to twine, twist, and twirl.
Often used in the singular to describe a collective sound ('the twitter of birds').