Meaning & use
endless jabber
Last updated
Meaning
phraseuncountableinformaldisapproving
Continuous talk that seems meaningless or annoying.
Grammar: Used as an uncountable noun phrase: the endless jabber, not an endless jabber or endless jabbers.
Patterns
- endless jabber about something
- endless jabber from someone
- listen to endless jabber
I couldn't work with the endless jabber coming from the next room.
His endless jabber about football bores everyone at lunch.
She turned off the radio to escape the endless jabber of the host.
Common combinations
- endless jabber about
- There was endless jabber about the new rules all morning.
- endless jabber from
- The endless jabber from the crowd made it hard to hear.
- constant jabber
- The constant jabber in the office gave me a headache.
Synonyms and how they differ
- chatter
- Chatter is friendlier and simply means a lot of talk, while jabber suggests the talk is meaningless or irritating.
- babble
- Babble often describes unclear sounds, especially from a baby or a stream, so it is less focused on annoying talk.
- prattle
- Prattle is more literary and also disapproving, but it suggests childish or trivial talk.
Opposites
Word family
- jabber verb
- To talk quickly in a way that is hard to understand or seems meaningless.
- jabbering noun
- The act or sound of talking in this fast, unclear way.
Commonly confused: endless jabber or jabber?
endless jabber vs jabber
Jabber alone can be a verb or an uncountable noun; endless jabber is the noun phrase with an adjective added.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'endless jabber' most naturally?
Choose one answer.
'Endless jabber' is an uncountable noun phrase, so it fits after 'the' as in option B. Option A wrongly uses 'an', option C uses it as a verb with a missing ending, and option D puts the adjective in the wrong place.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “endless jabber”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.