What's the difference between babble and smatter?

Babble


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To utter words indistinctly or unintelligibly; to utter inarticulate sounds; as a child babbles.
  • (v. i.) To talk incoherently; to utter unmeaning words.
  • (v. i.) To talk much; to chatter; to prate.
  • (v. i.) To make a continuous murmuring noise, as shallow water running over stones.
  • (v. i.) To utter in an indistinct or incoherent way; to repeat, as words, in a childish way without understanding.
  • (v. i.) To disclose by too free talk, as a secret.
  • (n.) Idle talk; senseless prattle; gabble; twaddle.
  • (n.) Inarticulate speech; constant or confused murmur.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Also analogues seem to be the producing of the so-called instinctives as mam(m)a and papa by somewhat older babies which are able to pass over from the babbling into permanent words of the adults' speech in which they persist if used without shifting of sounds since they are produced de novo generation by generation, but they are subordinate to shifting and possible extinction if used in the form of derivatives in the standard language, and some phenomena of the phylogenesis as the survival of less differentiated species contrary to the relatively quick extinction of the highly specialized ones.
  • (2) Then there's me and my buddy Ralph Garman , who does a daily radio show in LA, doing our entertainment podcast Hollywood Babble-On , which is basically just two guys who've worked in showbiz long enough to have informed opinions, sitting around taking the piss out of the entertainment industry.
  • (3) To listen to Gordon Brown this morning was to hear a babble of incoherent assertions, delivered very fast and with striking vigour and confidence, which in no way amount to an intellectual case for power.
  • (4) Phonetic transcriptions of 48 babbling samples from 11 normally hearing subjects, aged 4-18 months, and 39 samples from 14 hearing-impaired (HI) subjects, aged 4-39 months, were analyzed to determine the inventory of consonantal phones for each recording session.
  • (5) Significant monosyllabic-word-list intelligibility improvements are shown in hearing-impaired and in normal-hearing subjects for virtually any environmental noise, including white noise, babble (interfering background conversations), cafeteria noise, high-frequency noise, and low-frequency noise at signal-to-noise ratios to below -20 dB.
  • (6) Furthermore, low-frequency amplification, as used in this study, resulted in no observable degradation in syllable recognition in the presence of multitalker babble.
  • (7) These findings suggest both qualitative and quantitative differences in the babbling of the two groups.
  • (8) Our goal was to illuminate the role of canonical (well-formed syllabic) babbling in the development of speech by mentally retarded children.
  • (9) These findings indicate that for children with specific expressive language delay, vowel babble competes with expressive language, consonantal babble facilitates expressive language, and the length and social responsiveness of babble are independent of expressive language.
  • (10) Thinking of this kind makes Ai not only a great artist, but a thinker of the world's next political and intellectual phase, beyond the turgid babble of contemporary politics.
  • (11) This investigation examined phonetic variation in multisyllable babbling of infants from 0.7 to 0.11.
  • (12) The masking noise is an amplitude-modulated, speech-shaped noise signal, which is designed to simulate a 4-person speech babble in order to assess both the frequency selectivity and the temporal resolution.
  • (13) Acoustic-phonetic differences in the babbling of the two boys were evident in the 8-month sample (the first recording opportunity), and some differences between them became greater over the succeeding samples at 12 and 15 months.
  • (14) Additional testing with a smaller group of patients was carried out with competing noise (speech babble).
  • (15) The role of babbling in language development is not well understood.
  • (16) When both groups listened to speech that had been compressed and presented in a babble, their performance supported a multiplicative distortion theory, with children in the learning disabilities group showing a slightly greater multiplicative effect than the children with no apparent problems.
  • (17) For instance: "Very early experiences need to be rich in touch, face-to-face contact and stimulation through conversation (or reciprocating baby babble).
  • (18) Links between babbling and speech point to innate factors in the ontogeny of spoken language and invite attention to central control mechanisms.
  • (19) For someone who loves art but to whom the art world sounds like babbling in an invented language, this is godsend.
  • (20) Contrary to prevailing accounts of the neurological basis of babbling in language ontogeny, the speech modality is not critical in babbling.

Smatter


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To talk superficially or ignorantly; to babble; to chatter.
  • (v. i.) To have a slight taste, or a slight, superficial knowledge, of anything; to smack.
  • (v. t.) To talk superficially about.
  • (v. t.) To gain a slight taste of; to acquire a slight, superficial knowledge of; to smack.
  • (n.) Superficial knowledge; a smattering.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The debut of the film – before an audience of business journalists, film critics and a smattering of Wonga customers – comes before a grilling by MPs in Westminster on Tuesday as calls grow for tighter curbs on payday lenders.
  • (2) The trophic value of a food cannot be ascertained from food composition tables because only a smattering of the necessary information is commonly furnished.
  • (3) They've heard the views of a smattering of North Kivu's humanitarians, politicians, businessmen, civil society types and militia leaders.
  • (4) Nothing but plain text and links, it features a smattering of links from across the web as well as personal selections by various staff of active Kickstarter projects.
  • (5) As ever, there were a smattering of terrifyingly young GCSE students celebrating their successes.
  • (6) The village is a smattering of fishing shacks frequented by stray dogs and chickens; the sand is littered with sweet wrappers, water bottles, flip-flops and polystyrene food containers; the sea is cloudy from the dredging.
  • (7) In the face of such uncertainty, a smattering of refugees remained camped on the Hungarian border.
  • (8) There were MPs (Hilary Benn and family), a smattering of celebs, a lot of public sector workers, Unison stewards in smart purple smocks.
  • (9) Now the party, which has been dogged by allegations of financial mismanagement , has just a smattering of local councillors, and experts say that by May the UK could be "BNP-free" for the first time in a decade if Griffin fails to retain his seat in the European parliamentary elections.
  • (10) Its existing city centre has a smattering of empty shops at the foot of neglected Victorian buildings, and is noticeably short on big chains.
  • (11) That may represent a tiny fraction of the industry’s estimated sales of recorded music, but still, a means of listening to music essentially invented in the 19th century and long since presumed to be dead is growing at speed, and the presses at Optimal – along with similar facilities smattered across the UK, mainland Europe, the US and beyond – are set to grind and pump on, into the future.
  • (12) Many heartland supporters have already defected, and a smattering of leading trade unionists and Labour socialists have professed reluctant support for yes.
  • (13) Now they are smattered with artists' showrooms and craft workshops.
  • (14) It’s like a real-life computer game, with the extra dramatic dimension that if you crash you can’t just reboot,” he said, as a smattering of drone groupies pressed up against the barriers to eavesdrop on their hero.
  • (15) The former Murdoch editors Andrew Neil, David Yelland, Harold Evans and Colin Myler were all criticised personally, as were a smattering of lawyers such as Tom Crone .
  • (16) ‘Like the poshest hostage video ever’: our columnists on the Queen’s speech | Panel Read more The programme was also smattered with consumer-friendly pledges, from rolling out high-speed broadband nationwide and making it easier to switch energy supplier, to allowing local authorities to force bus firms to run more frequent services.
  • (17) There was a smattering of boos from the home supporters who had stayed to the final whistle.
  • (18) His grandmother was a leading communist, his father, Edward, a Labour voter and assistant director of education for West Sussex (before piggybacking on his son's success to become a well known broadcaster in his own right) while Enfield has always been a bit of a political maverick – liberal with a smattering of Catholic conservatism (though he's pretty much had it with God), and libertarianism (he loves a good hunt).
  • (19) Such is the "Red" part of his thinking, and the reason why his smattering of Tory fans often seem to be far outnumbered by hostile Thatcherites; as one Labour figure recently put it, "a Red Tory revolution would certainly need much blue blood to be spilled."
  • (20) I’d say to all of you please, judge us by our performance, not by our titles.” Abbott’s speech, which drew a smattering of applause from the audience, provoked a mixed reaction.