What's the difference between mutter and utter?

Mutter


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To utter words indistinctly or with a low voice and lips partly closed; esp., to utter indistinct complaints or angry expressions; to grumble; to growl.
  • (v. i.) To sound with a low, rumbling noise.
  • (v. t.) To utter with imperfect articulations, or with a low voice; as, to mutter threats.
  • (n.) Repressed or obscure utterance.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) When accused of muttering it while reciting Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo, during filming of BBC2s Top Gear, he said he had not, that he would absolutely never use "the most racist word of them all".
  • (2) It's the kind of TV that makes for a wipe-your-weekend-plans box set: the ending of every crack-fix of an episode had me twitchily reaching for the remote to a muttered internal monologue of: "Next one, next one, now, now…" Danes carries the series as the bipolar CIA agent Carrie Mathison, whose furious vigilance is hard to distinguish from pathological mania as she investigates, and ultimately falls for, Sergeant Brody (Damian Lewis), a Marine who may or may not be a terrorist after eight years held captive by al-Qaida.
  • (3) Brownites used to mutter bitterly about their hero for failing to compete with Tony Blair after the death of John Smith.
  • (4) And that voice like a whip-crack: impish, transgressive, swooping from a mutter to a scream.
  • (5) Sampson became the discreet, muttering centre of a web, connected by telephone and letter, telegram and fax, to an astounding cast of world leaders and commentarians, film stars and novelists.
  • (6) For what it's worth, Labour lost on a whopping great 18% swing to the Tories, yet despite an awful lot of muttering absolutely nothing happened.
  • (7) True, he has trounced them so thoroughly that any mutterings of future challenges are an empty blast of sour breath.
  • (8) Two years as a minister is plenty of time to stack up enemies, or at least a few mutterings that you’ve made a hash of the job.
  • (9) Obviously it should be scoffed down in a box set, like a Supersize V Superskinny obese person's enormo-breakfast, before a period of lying green-faced in a darkened room, listening to experimental jazz, muttering, "Carrie can't let another mistake happen!
  • (10) "It's going to destroy property prices in this area," muttered one.
  • (11) As he checks the woman’s heart with a stethoscope, he explains exactly what is about to happen to her – the nurses will hook her up to an EKG machine, among other procedures – and gets the woman to lie down, still muttering at the original nurse but pliable.
  • (12) "Any politician that claims to you that they're an ordinary person is not telling you the truth," Miliband mutters, half smiling and wincing.
  • (13) Even the most fervent haters of the BBC can only mutter and mumble when Attenborough productions are mentioned.
  • (14) It was a misjudgment in the heat of the moment.” The forlorn-looking Formula One world champion muttered: “I can’t really express the way I’m feeling at the moment so I won’t attempt to.
  • (15) Not via muttering idiots, but upfront, with an acrid twist.
  • (16) He’s not just a straight-talker, he’s a man who reliably says the things politicians dream their opponents will be caught muttering within range of forgotten radio-mics – except he declaims them on a podium in front of thousands.
  • (17) ", seconds before splashing about in the sub-zero Atlantic muttering "bugger".
  • (18) Bit of muttering about justifying selling one's own grandmother Updated at 1.21pm BST 1.06pm BST As Barb Jacobson, of the European Citizen's initiative for a basic income, puts it, a basic income should be high enough for everyone to have a dignified life in society, and to take part in society.
  • (19) One woman muttered angrily to her companion: "It is the dumbing down of America."
  • (20) Some of the mutterings from Threadneedle Street are not the stuff to give the troops."

Utter


Definition:

  • (a.) Outer.
  • (a.) Situated on the outside, or extreme limit; remote from the center; outer.
  • (a.) Complete; perfect; total; entire; absolute; as, utter ruin; utter darkness.
  • (a.) Peremptory; unconditional; unqualified; final; as, an utter refusal or denial.
  • (a.) To put forth or out; to reach out.
  • (a.) To dispose of in trade; to sell or vend.
  • (a.) hence, to put in circulation, as money; to put off, as currency; to cause to pass in trade; -- often used, specifically, of the issue of counterfeit notes or coins, forged or fraudulent documents, and the like; as, to utter coin or bank notes.
  • (a.) To give public expression to; to disclose; to publish; to speak; to pronounce.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In the experiments to be reported here, computer-averaged EMG data were obtained from PCA of native speakers of American English, Japanese, and Danish who uttered test words embedded in frame sentences.
  • (2) This study examined the frequency of occurrence of velar deviations in spontaneous single-word utterances over a 6-month period for 40 children who ranged in age from 1:11 (years:months) to 3:1 at the first observation.
  • (3) Her speech suggested the kind of Republican who would truly "raise the conversation", and if it seems like settling to want an opposition party to simply not be so utterly vindictive, well, yes, I will settle for that.
  • (4) Theresa May has shown a complete and utter lack of interest in Northern Ireland since taking office.
  • (5) The results of the present study focused on differences in types of self-touching by patients and physicians, semantic content of utterances when self-touching was displayed, and temporal location of self-touching within the speech stream.
  • (6) A single-subject design was applied to study increase in functional use of language by a 14-yr.-old Down Syndrome girl from a mean length of utterance of 1.3 words to 4.4 in a classroom, 5.1 in the restaurant, and 4.7 during transportation.
  • (7) The media is utterly self-obsessed and we get more ink than perhaps we should do.
  • (8) Instead, because of other people, it all too often becomes something else: a complete and utter hell.
  • (9) Three male and 2 female subjects produced six repetitions of 12 utterances that were initiated and terminated by vowels and consonants of differing phonetic features.
  • (10) The infant, who was utterly small for his gestational age, showed an aberrant motoric pattern and a high forehead, low-set ears, a prominent occiput and scoliosis, an extension defect in the knee joints and flexed, ulnar-deviated wrists.
  • (11) "How these union bosses get elected, how they raise money, how they disperse money is a complete and utter mystery.
  • (12) Thus in your own words you have said why it was utterly inappropriate for you to use the platform of a Pac hearing in this way.” He suggested that many professionals were “in despair at the lack of understanding and cheap haranguing which characterise your manner” after a series of hearings at which Hodge has led fierce interrogations of senior business figures and others.
  • (13) Much of the research dealing with linguistic dimensions in stuttering has emphasized the various aspects of grammar, particularly as these aspects contribute to the meaning of utterances.
  • (14) That's completely and utterly grotesque and, no matter how proud we all are in the labour movement that the minimum wage exists, not a single day goes by that we shouldn't be disgusted with ourselves for that.
  • (15) The changes in Parkinsonian subjects of the cross-sectional area during the utterance of sustained sounds are attributed to both Parkinsonian tremor and rigidity.
  • (16) Too distressed to utter more than a single word - "Devastated" - in the immediate aftermath of her withdrawal, a pale and red-eyed Radcliffe emerged yesterday to give her version of the events that ended the attempt to crown her career with a gold medal.
  • (17) Informed sources in Germany said Merkel was livid about the reports that the NSA had bugged her phone and was convinced, on the basis of a German intelligence investigation, that the reports were utterly substantiated.
  • (18) | Hugh Muir Read more Wherever Labour people gather to discuss how to break out of the vice tightening around the party, answers fail amid sighs of utter despair.
  • (19) The IFS says similar declines emerge if you set the figure as low as 40% of median income – utterly refuting Nick Clegg's toxic line dismissing the threshold as just "poverty plus a pound" .
  • (20) "Public sector workers and their families are utterly shocked by Jeremy Clarkson's revolting comments.