cackle
/ˈkækəl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.41 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "I heard a grey hen cackling among the ling; I called and thought, "If I could get a sight of you now, it would be your last cackle;" just then I heard something moving behind me on the path."
- "There's no time to waste on silly cackle."
- "A cackle of hyenas might take on one male lion, but two is one too many."
- "A single male lion facing a cackle of hyenas may feel dominant enough to choose to fight them."
- "A cackle of hyenas had her surrounded, enticed by the smell of her just-given birth."
- "Her mother's personal assistant -- the youngest hyena in the cackle"
Etymology
From Middle English caclen, cakelen, perhaps from Old English *caclian, *cacolian, from Proto-West Germanic *kakulōn, *kakilōn (“to cackle, gaggle, yelp, snarl”), perhaps of imitative origin. By surface analysis, cack + -le. Compare Dutch kakelen (“to cackle”), German Low German kakeln (“to cackle”), German kakeln (“to blather”), Danish kagle (“to cackle”), Swedish kackla (“to cackle”). Compare also Old English cahhetan, ċeahhettan (“to laugh loudly; cackle”), German gackern (“to cackle”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: caclen, *caclian, *kakulōn