babel

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a confused mixture of voices, languages, or other sounds

   A babel of shouted orders filled the crowded station.

2. 2
   noun

   a noisy scene marked by confusion and many people speaking at once

   The calm meeting became a babel as everyone tried to answer simultaneously.

From the biblical name Babel, identified with Babylon. Genesis explains the name through Hebrew balal, 'to confuse,' in the story of human languages being confounded at the Tower of Babel; English then generalized the name to any confusion of voices or languages.

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