different between bumble vs stumble

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?mb?l/
• Rhymes: -?mb?l

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeia. Compare bungle, jumble, and fumble.

Noun

bumble (plural bumbles)

1. A confusion; a jumble.

Verb

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

1. To act in an inept, clumsy or inexpert manner; to make mistakes.

Translations

Derived terms

• Bumblefuck

Related terms

• bungle
• fumble
• jumble

Etymology 2

• Verb: Frequentative of boom and/or bum, equivalent to bum +? -le.
• Noun: From the verb.

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To boom, as a bittern; to buzz, as a fly.

Related terms

• bumble-bee

Noun

bumble (plural bumbles)

1. A bumble-bee.
2. (Britain, dialect) The bittern.

English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *stam- (“to trip up; to stammer, stutter”), thereby related to German stumm (“mute”), Dutch stom (“dumb”). Doublet of stammer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?st?mb?l/
• Rhymes: -?mb?l

Noun

stumble (plural stumbles)

1. A fall, trip or substantial misstep.
2. An error or blunder.
3. A clumsy walk.

Synonyms

• (a blunder): blooper, blunder, boo-boo, defect, error, fault, faux pas, fluff, gaffe, lapse, mistake, slip, thinko
• See also Thesaurus:error

Translations

Verb

stumble (third-person singular simple present stumbles, present participle stumbling, simple past and past participle stumbled)

1. (intransitive) To trip or fall; to walk clumsily.

2. (intransitive) To make a mistake or have trouble.

3. (transitive) To cause to stumble or trip.
4. (transitive, figuratively) To mislead; to confound; to cause to err or to fall.
   • One thing more stumbles me in the very foundation of this hypothesis.

5. To strike or happen (upon a person or thing) without design; to fall or light by chance; with on, upon, or against.
   • 1680, John Dryden, Ovid's Epistles

     He [Ovid] had stumbled, by some inadvertency, upon the privacies of Livia […] in a bath.

   • 1754, Christopher Smart, Snake

     Forth as she waddled in the brake, / A grey goose stumbled on a snake.

Derived terms

• stumble across
• stumble against
• stumble on
• stumble upon

Translations

See also

• stumbling block

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “stumble”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• tumbles