Babel Hear it!

Babel¹ Definition

Ba·bel (bəl, babəl)

noun

  1. Bible a city in Shinar in which Noah's descendants tried to build a very high tower to reach heaven and were prevented by God from doing so by a confusion of tongues: Gen. 11:1-9
  2. an impracticable scheme
    1. any confusion of voices or sounds; tumult
    2. a place of such confusion

Etymology: Heb bavel < Akkadian bābilu, altered (by folk-etym. assoc. with bāb, gate & ili god) < pre-Akkadian city name babila, Babylon

Babel² Definition

Ba·bel (bəl)

Babel, Isaak (Emmanuilovich) (ē säk) 1894-1940; Russ. writer

Babel Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • voice: Among the victors there is a babel of jarring voices; among the vanquished the sullen silence of despair.

Modifies a noun

  • fish: What happens is that the ear translation thingy ( babel fish?
  • tower: I think of vast utopian cities, babel towers scarred with roads.

Noun used with modifier

  • theater: The grant also funded theater babel to assemble a large company to rehearse over an extended period.
Babel Quotes

Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the L did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the L scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Browse dictionary entries near Babel

  1. babe
  2. -babble
  3. babble
  4. Babbitt metal
  5. babbitt
  6. Babbage, Charles
  7. Babbage
  8. babassu
  9. Babar
  10. baba ghanouj
  1. Baber
  2. babesiosis
  3. Babi
  4. babiche
  5. babies' breath
  6. babirusa
  7. Babism
  8. babka
  9. baboon
  10. babu