babel means the city and tower in the land of Shinar where the confusion of languages took place, according to the Bible. It carries an Arena rating of 1923, earned across 21 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, babel ranks #56 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #75 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #219 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #842 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words.
babel is pronounced /ˈbeɪ.bl̩/.
Why “babel” is a great word
A scene or sound of noisy confusion, especially from many voices or languages, or a towering structure, both allusions to the biblical city and tower. From the Hebrew בָּבֶל (bāḇel, "Babel, Babylon"), interpreted in the Bible as related to בָּלַל (bālal, "to confuse, mix"), though the name's original Akkadian source, Bāb-ilim, means "Gate of the God"; the sense of "confused sound" is attested from the 1520s via the biblical narrative. Unlike "babble," which denotes mere rapid, indistinct utterance, or "pandemonium," which implies wild, lawless chaos, babel is confusion with a specific, monumental source: the dissonance of a hundred tongues in a crowded marketplace, the frantic din rising from a stalled construction site, the hollow atrium of a half-finished skyscraper. It is the sound of a grand design collapsing into its constituent parts, the vertigo of communion broken just as the spire nears the clouds.
Etymology
From Latin Babel, from Biblical Hebrew בָּבֶל (bāḇel, “Babylon”), from Akkadian 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 (Bābilim); in Genesis associated with the idea of confusion. Doublet of Babylon.
name
- The city and tower in the land of Shinar where the confusion of languages took place, according to the Bible.e.g.“Therefore is the name of it called Babel[…]” — 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 11:9, column 2:
noun
- A confused mixture of sounds and voices, especially in different languages.e.g.“As the three were making their way through the crowds of marketers, camels, donkeys, and horses that filled the market place with a confusing babel of sounds, Abdul plucked at Tarzan’s sleeve.” — 1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg, published March 1915, →OCLC:
- A place or scene of noise and confusion.
- A tall, looming structure.
- A confused noise made by a number of voices.e.g.“I closed the door hurriedly on the babel and groped my way back to bed. At that moment bed seemed to be the one safe, comforting thing in my whole baffling environment.” — 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 11:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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