different between chatter vs chitter

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?t?æt?/
• (US) enPR: ch?t??r, IPA^(key): /?t?æt?/
• Rhymes: -æt?(r)

Etymology 1

From Middle English chateren, from earlier cheteren, chiteren (“to twitter, chatter, jabber”), of imitative origin. Compare Dutch schateren (“chatter”), schetteren, Dutch koeteren (“jabber”), dialectal German kaudern (“to gobble (like a turkey)”), Danish kvidre (“to twitter, chirp”).

Noun

chatter (usually uncountable, plural chatters)

1. Talk, especially meaningless or unimportant talk.

   Synonyms: chattering, chatting, nattering; see also Thesaurus:chatter

2. The sound of talking.
3. The vocalisations of a Eurasian magpie, Pica pica.
4. The vocalisations of various birds or other animals.
   • 2016, Cornelia F. Mutel, A Sugar Creek Chronicle (page 41)

     The wind rose as the earth darkened, so that fading chatters of woodland animals were countered by the strengthening sounds of waving trees […]

5. An intermittent noise, as from vibration.

6. (uncountable) In national security, the degree of communication between suspect groups and individuals, used to gauge the degree of expected terrorist activity.

7. (uncountable) The situation where a drill or similar tool vibrates and tears the material rather than cutting it cleanly.

Translations

Verb

chatter (third-person singular simple present chatters, present participle chattering, simple past and past participle chattered)

1. (intransitive) To talk idly.

   Synonyms: chat, natter
2. (intransitive) Of teeth, machinery, etc, to make a noise by rapid collisions.

   Synonyms: clatter, knock, (said of an engine) pink

3. To utter sounds which somewhat resemble language, but are inarticulate and indistinct.
   • 1815, William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence

     The jay makes answer, as the magpie chatters with delight.

Translations

Etymology 2

chat +? -er

Noun

chatter (plural chatters)

1. One who chats.
2. (Internet) A user of chat rooms.

Further reading

• chatter in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• chatter in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• chatter at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• ratchet, traceth

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English chiteren, chitren, cheteren.

Verb

chitter (third-person singular simple present chitters, present participle chittering, simple past and past participle chittered)

1. To make a series of high-pitched sounds; to twitter, chirp or chatter.

   It was a beautifully sunny day and beetles could be heard chittering loudly in the rose garden by the side of the path made out of antique bricks.

2. (obsolete, Scotland) To shiver or chatter with cold.

Etymology 2

Noun

chitter (plural chitters)

1. (dialect) Alternative form of chitterling

References

• “chitter” in the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 1974 edition.