Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

bungling

/bˈʌŋɡəlɪŋ/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.31 in modern English

Syllables: bungling
IPA: /bˈʌŋɡəlɪŋ/

12

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

3

Syllables

6

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Incompetent or inept.

noun

An act of incompetence or ineptitude.

verb

present participle and gerund of bungle

Example Sentences

"Harry made a bungling attempt to catch the ball."
"Well, he then decided to manufacture everything as in the human body. I'll show you in the museum the bungling attempt it took him ten years to produce. It was to have been a man, but it lived for three days only. Then up came young Rossum, an engineer. He was a wonderful fellow, Miss Glory. When he saw what a mess of it the old man was making, he said: "It's absurd to spend ten years making a man. If you can't make him quicker than nature, you might as well shut up shop.""
"Your bungling nearly cost us our jobs."

Etymology

From the verb bungle.

Inflected Forms

more bungling (comparative) most bungling (superlative) bunglings (plural)

Derived Forms

bunglingly unbungling

Synonyms

bumbling butterfingered ham-fisted ham-handed handless heavy-handed left-handed clumsy fumbling incompetent

Questions

How do you pronounce bungling?: The recorded pronunciation is /bˈʌŋɡəlɪŋ/.
What does bungling mean?: Incompetent or inept.
Where does bungling come from?: From the verb bungle.

How to pronounce bungling

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “bungling”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/bˈʌŋɡəlɪŋ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “bungling”.
Repeat and practice — Say “bungling” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.