as in to stammer
to speak with many involuntary pauses and repetitions
I used to stutter when I was a child. She stutters when she gets excited.
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of stutter
Iranian talks with the United States to resolve the nuclear dispute have stuttered this year.
—
Dan Morrison, USA Today, 15 June 2025
South Korea’s economy has stuttered in recent months, with rising costs of living and lower consumption.
—Jessie Yeung, CNN Money, 3 June 2025
First, the hard cut: Samuel in a medium shot, shirtless, standing alone in the frame, as those stuttering first notes and thumping synth line drop in.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 25 Apr. 2025
Vestiges of her classical training—Twigs cannot abandon the harp—are forced to make dissonance with manic handclaps and stuttering vocal tuning.
—Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 1 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for stutter
Dan Morrison, USA Today, 15 June 2025
South Korea’s economy has stuttered in recent months, with rising costs of living and lower consumption.
—Jessie Yeung, CNN Money, 3 June 2025
First, the hard cut: Samuel in a medium shot, shirtless, standing alone in the frame, as those stuttering first notes and thumping synth line drop in.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 25 Apr. 2025
Vestiges of her classical training—Twigs cannot abandon the harp—are forced to make dissonance with manic handclaps and stuttering vocal tuning.
—Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 1 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for stutter
Recent Examples of Synonyms for stutter
Verb
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Thiel stared ahead blankly and began stammering, as if his brain were buffering.—
Christian Schneider,
National Review,
10 July 2025
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Sherman portrayed the youngest of three brothers, the shy, stammering logger Jeremy Bolt, on the 1968-70 Screen Gems/ABC show.—
Mike Barnes,
HollywoodReporter,
24 June 2025
Verb
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His jaw wobbled unsteadily and a thin thread of spit drooled from the side of his mouth onto the counter.—
Hazlitt,
Hazlitt,
16 July 2025
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Early signs include excessive panting, drooling, lethargy and weakness.—
Jen Reeder,
Forbes.com,
14 July 2025
Verb
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Tell Grammy that on this side of the Atlantic there is nothing to mumble about.—
John Updike,
New Yorker,
11 July 2025
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The teen, bare-chested with unkempt hair under an askew cap, mumbles through a half-hearted apology and refuses to remove his ostentatious sunglasses when asked by the interviewer.—
EW.com,
EW.com,
9 July 2025
Verb
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Most of those shouting questions at Tatis for 45 minutes were doing so in Spanish.—
Kevin Acee,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
14 July 2025
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However, Ultraman is simple-minded and purely exists to follow Luthor's directions, down to the exact attack moves his handler shouts into his earpiece during fights.—
EW.com,
EW.com,
14 July 2025
Verb
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Three days before the biggest fireworks holiday of the year, the building exploded, sparking a fire that raged across the flat valley floor amid the sounds of fireworks popping and shrieking.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
8 July 2025
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Gypsy’s famous stage mother, played by shrieking Audra McDonald, is racialized in Broadway’s latest instance of gaslighting.—
Armond White,
National Review,
13 June 2025
Verb
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Officers tended to wave shiny new Packards through their checkpoints but halted sputtering early-model Fords pulling makeshift trailers and caked with half a continent’s dust.—
Olatunji Osho-Williams,
Smithsonian Magazine,
24 July 2025
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The legislation gained momentum after its introduction by Sen. Caroline Menjivar (D-Panorama City) and Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) in the wake of January’s devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, but neither made it out of its house of origin before sputtering out.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
7 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Stutter.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/stutter. Accessed 30 Jul. 2025.
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