What does warble mean?
Word: Warble
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Of a bird, to sing with a gentle, trilling, changing sound; of a person, to sing in a high, wavering voice.
Synonyms: trill, chirp, sing, twitter
Word origin: Comes from Old Northern French, from a word of Germanic origin related to whirl.
How do you spell warble?
Syllables: war - ble
Tricky part: The first part is war, which sounds like wor, so worble is a common slip.
Watch out for: worble, wourble
Memory tip: Warm, wardrobe and warble all start w-a-r, and all say it like wor.
Warble in a sentence
Example 1: A magpie robin warbled from the mango tree every morning.
Example 2: Grandpa warbled an old film song while he watered the plants.
Example 3: We woke to birds warbling outside our tent in Coorg.
Fun Fact
Warblers, a large group of small songbirds, are named after their singing, and many look so alike that birdwatchers tell them apart mainly by their songs.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Tally
How many words are misspelt in the given sentence?
From the guava tree outside my window, a tiny bird would warbel while my mother made tea.
a) 2
b) 1
c) 3
d) 0
Show answer
b) 1. Warble ends in -ble like table; the rest of the sentence is correct.
Spellacadabra
Choose the misspelt word:
a) warbble
b) herbal
c) carbon
d) turban
Show answer
a) warbble. Warble has only one b, like carbon, turban and herbal.
Word Puzzle
Match the words with the correct options:
1. warble 2. mumble 3. bellow a. to shout in a deep, loud voice b. to make a quick, trembling song c. to speak too quietly to be heard clearly
a) 1-a, 2-b, 3-c
b) 1-b, 2-c, 3-a
c) 1-c, 2-a, 3-b
d) 1-b, 2-a, 3-c
Show answer
b) 1-b, 2-c, 3-a. A warble is a trembling song, a mumble is too quiet to follow and a bellow is a deep shout.
Spell Probe
Choose the meaning of the misspelt word in the given sentence:
A blackbird would warble from the plum tree beside our school entrence before the first bell rang.
a) a common garden songbird, the male of which is black
b) a tree with sweet, purple or red fruit
c) a door, gate or opening into a place
d) to pour out a run of soft, shaking notes
Show answer
c) a door, gate or opening into a place. Entrence should be entrance, with an a before the nce; warble, blackbird and plum are correct.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which sound would a birdwatcher describe as warbling?
a) a low, steady hum
b) a loud, flat squawk
c) a soft, trilling run of notes
d) a single sharp honk
Show answer
c) a soft, trilling run of notes
2. If your uncle warbles a song, he ____.
a) whistles it through his teeth
b) shouts it out angrily
c) writes it down on paper
d) sings it in a shaky, trilling way
Show answer
d) sings it in a shaky, trilling way
