• IPA^(key): /ˈbʌmbəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmbəl

Onomatopoeia. Compare bungle, jumble, and fumble.

bumble (plural bumbles)

1. A confusion; a jumble.

bumble (third-person singular simple present bumbles, present participle bumbling, simple past and past participle bumbled)

1. (intransitive) To act or move in an awkward or confused manner (often clumsily, incompetently, or carelessly). [from 1530s]

   Spiders build webs and wait for insects to bumble into them.

2. (originally Scotland and Northern England, transitive) To carry out (a task) clumsily, incompetently, or with many careless mistakes; to bungle, to botch. [from ca. 1719?]

• bungle
• fumble
• jumble

• Verb: Frequentative of boom and/or bum, equivalent to bum +‎ -le. late Middle English (in the sense ‘hum, drone’): from boom + -le.
• Noun: From the verb.

bumble (third-person singular simple present bumbles, present participle bumbling, simple past and past participle bumbled)

1. (intransitive) To boom, as a Eurasian bittern. [from ca. 1405]
2. (intransitive, of an insect) To buzz or bum. [from 1689]
3. (intransitive, frequently with on) To speak in a rambling, incoherent, or indistinct manner, especially at tedious length. [from 1911]
4. (transitive, obsolete) To grumble at; to blame. [1675–1781]

• bumblebee
• bumblebird

bumble (plural bumbles)

1. A bumblebee. [from 1599]
2. (UK, Ireland, dialect) A Eurasian bittern. [from 1813]

• “bumble, v.²”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “bumble, v.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “bumble, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “bumble, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “bumble (v.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.