Babel Hear it!

Babel¹ Definition

Ba·bel (bā′bəl, bab′əl)

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 (bä′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
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  4. ‹ Babbitt metal
  5. ‹ babbitt
  6. ‹ Babbage, Charles
  7. ‹ Babbage
  8. ‹ babassu
  9. ‹ Babar
  10. ‹ baba ghanouj
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