babel

 Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5++朗文当代英语 5++LDOCE 5++朗文 5++

Related topics: Colours & sounds

ba·bel /ˈbeɪbəl $ ˈbeɪ-, ˈbæ-/ noun [singular, uncountable]  CLOUD/NOISYthe confusing sound of many voices talking together 嘈杂声 a babel of French and Italian 法语、意大利语混杂的说话声

Examples from the Corpus

babel• The village was a babel of accents from Ulster, London, Glasgow and Lancashire.• a babel of conflicting opinions• Why did the people want to build the tower of babel?• She hushed the babel of her thoughts and tried to sleep.Origin babel (1500-1600) Tower of Babel, (in the Bible) tower in ancient Babylon whose builders made God angry, so he made them unable to understand each other's speech

ba·bel nounChineseSyllable  

of voices many Corpus sound talking confusing the

babel
ba‧bel /ˈbeɪbəl $ ˈbeɪ-, ˈbæ-/ noun [singular, uncountable]the confusing sound of many voices talking together:
    a babel of French and Italian

babelBrE /ˈbeɪbl/ 🔊NAmE /ˈbeɪbl/ 🔊 noun [singular] (formal) the sound of many voices talking at one time, especially when more than one language is being spoken 嘈杂声（尤指讲多种语言） ORIGIN From the Bible story in which God punished the people who were trying to build a tower to reach heaven (the tower of Babel) by making them unable to understand each others' languages. 源自《圣经》故事。世人拟建造通天的巴别塔 (the tower of Babel)，上帝为惩罚他们而使他们无法理解彼此的语言。