English Explanatory Dictionary

stumble

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A fall, trip or substantial misstep.
  2. An error or blunder.
  3. A clumsy walk.
verb
  1. To trip or fall; to walk clumsily.
  2. To make a mistake or have trouble.
  3. To cause to stumble or trip.
  4. To mislead; to confound; to cause to err or to fall.
  5. To strike or happen (upon a person or thing) without design; to fall or light by chance; with on, upon, across, or against.

Pronunciation

/ˈstʌmbəl/ en-us-stumble.ogg /ˈstʊmbəl/

Word forms

stumble stumbles stumbling stumbled

Etymology

Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stam- (“to trip up; to stammer, stutter”), thereby related to German stumm (“mute”), Dutch stom (“dumb”). Doublet of stammer. Also related to verb in Dutch stommelen (“to walk silently”).

Synonyms

blooper blunder boo-boo defect error fault faux pas fluff gaffe lapse mistake slip thinko

Related words

stumbling block

Derived words

stumble across stumble against stumblebum stumble-drunk stumble into stumble on stumble onto stumbler stumblesome stumble upon stumbly
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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