What does chattered mean?
"Chattered" is the past tense of "chatter," a verb with two main strands of meaning. The first and most common describes human speech: to have talked quickly, continuously, and often about unimportant things, usually with a lively or nervous energy. The second covers rapid, repetitive sounds in nature — birds and monkeys are said to have chattered — and a third, vivid use describes teeth that have chattered, that is, clicked together uncontrollably from cold or fear. The word is imitative in origin, echoing the very sounds it names, which gives it an onomatopoeic immediacy rare in English vocabulary. In tone, "chattered" ranges from affectionately descriptive to faintly critical when implying idle gossip. It remains a versatile, evocative choice for writers depicting animated conversation, noisy wildlife, or the physical effects of cold.
verbPast tense and past participle of "chatter": to talk rapidly and continuously about trivial matters, or to make a series of quick, repeated clicking sounds.
- Talked quickly, at length, or trivially in a lively way.
- Made a rapid series of short, sharp sounds, as birds or monkeys do.
- (Of teeth) clicked together repeatedly, typically from cold or fear.
"The children chattered excitedly about the trip all the way home."
"She chattered nervously through the entire waiting-room visit, filling every silence."
"Our teeth chattered as we waited outside in the freezing wind."
When your teeth chattered, they were doing what the word was invented to describe — an imitation of the sound itself, coined from pure noise rather than any ancient root.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of chattered
"Chattered" derives from "chatter," which appeared in Middle English as "chateren" around the medieval period. The word is widely regarded as imitative in origin, formed to mimic the sound of rapid talk or repeated clicking, much like "babble" and "gabble." It is related to "chat," a shortened form of the same imitative root, and has since spawned derivatives such as "chatterbox" and "chatterer."
Related word forms
How chattered is actually used
"Chattered" is informal to neutral in register. When applied to people it often carries a mildly teasing connotation of excessive or trivial talk; applied to teeth, it is the standard idiom for shivering from cold or fear.
Easily confused with chattered
A chattel is a piece of personal property in law, whereas chattered describes having talked rapidly or made rapid clicking sounds.
Shattered means broken into pieces or devastated, while chattered refers to rapid, continuous talk or clicking sounds.