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twitter

Pronunciation: /ˈtwɪtə/

The English word “twitter” has 11 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. The sound of a succession of chirps as uttered by birds.
  2. Unwanted flicker that occurs in interlaced displays when the image contains vertical detail that approaches the horizontal resolution of the video format.
  3. A tremulous broken sound.
  4. A slight trembling of the nerves.
  5. Chiefly in the form in a twitter: a state of excitement or nervousness; a twit.
  6. A knot or other defect in a thread or yarn which hinders spinning or weaving; a twit.

verb

  1. To utter a succession of chirps.
  2. (of a person) To talk in an excited or nervous manner.
  3. To make the sound of a half-suppressed laugh; to titter; to giggle.
  4. To have a slight trembling of the nerves; to be excited or agitated.
  5. To twit; to reproach or upbraid.

Etymology

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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.