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Utter vs Mumble - What's the difference?

utter | mumble |

As verbs the difference between utter and mumble

is that utter is to say while mumble is to speak unintelligibly or inaudibly; to fail to articulate.

As an adjective utter

is outer; furthest out, most remote.

As an adverb utter

is further out; further away, outside.

As a noun mumble is

a quiet or unintelligible vocalization.

utter

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) ; compare (outer).

Adjective

(-)
  • * Chapman
    • By him a shirt and utter mantle laid.
  • * Spenser
    • As doth an hidden moth / The inner garment fret, not th' utter touch.
  • * Milton
    • Through utter and through middle darkness borne.
  • (obsolete) Outward.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Matthew XXIII:
    • Wo be to you scrybes and pharises ypocrites, for ye make clene the utter side off the cuppe, and off the platter: but within they are full of brybery and excesse.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.10:
    • So forth without impediment I past, / Till to the Bridges utter gate I came .
  • Absolute, unconditional, total, complete.
    • utter''' ruin; '''utter darkness
  • * Atterbury
    • They are utter strangers to all those anxious thoughts which disquiet mankind.
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=1920 , year_published=2008 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=Thuvia, Maiden of Mars , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=His eyes could not penetrate the darkness even to the distinguishing of his hand before his face, while the banths, he knew, could see quite well, though absence of light were utter . }}
    Synonyms
    * see also
    Derived terms
    * utterly * utterness * uttermost

    Etymology 2

    Partly from (out) (adverb/verb), partly from (etyl) uteren.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To say
    • Don't you utter another word!
  • To use the voice
    • Sally uttered a sigh of relief.
    The dog uttered a growling bark.
  • To make speech sounds which may or may not have an actual language involved
    • Sally is uttering some fairly strange things in her illness.
  • *
  • To make (a noise)
    • Sally's car uttered a hideous shriek when she applied the brakes.
  • (legal) To put counterfeit money, etc. , into circulation
    • Derived terms
    * utterance * utterer * utterless * utterable

    Etymology 3

    (etyl) .

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (label) Further out; further away, outside.
  • *, Bk.VII, Ch.v:
  • *:So whan he com nyghe to hir, she bade hym ryde uttir —‘for thou smellyst all of the kychyn.’
    • ----

    mumble

    English

    Verb

  • (intransitive) To speak unintelligibly or inaudibly; to fail to articulate.
    • Please try not to mumble so I can hear you better.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Peace, you mumbling fool.
  • * Otway
    • A wrinkled hag, with age grown double, / Picking dry sticks, and mumbling to herself.
  • To chew something gently with closed lips.

    • Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * mumblage * mumblecore * mumblenews * mumbler * mumblety peg

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A quiet or unintelligible vocalization.
    • All I could hear was a mumble from the next room.
  • A low tone of voice.
    • ''He spoke in a mumble .