sputter
/ˈspʌtɚ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.22 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To emit saliva or spit from the mouth in small, scattered portions, as in rapid speaking.
Intransitive verb
verb
To speak so rapidly as to emit saliva; to utter words hastily and indistinctly, with a spluttering sound, as in rage.
Example Sentences
- "The child [...] kicked, and crowed, and sputtered, when his mother took him, and put up his little fingers to clutch her hair, and was to her as a young god upon the earth. Nothing in the world had ever been created so beautiful, so joyous, so satisfactory, so divine!"
- "They could neither of them speak their rage, and so fell a sputtering at one another, like two roasting apples."
- "In the midst of caresses, and without the least pretended incitement, to sputter out the basest and falsest accusations."
- "Like the green wood [...] sputtering in the flame."
Etymology
Probably representing Middle English *sputren, *sputrien, a frequentative form of Middle English sputen (“to spout, vomit”), equivalent to spout + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian spüttern (“to inject, spray, splash”), West Frisian sputterje (“to sputter”), Dutch sputteren (“to sputter”), Low German sputtern, spruttern (“to sprinkle”), German sprudeln (“to spout, squirt”). Compare splutter.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈspʌtɚ/