gobbledygook

English

Alternative forms

• gobbledegook; gobblygook, gobbly-gook

Etymology

First attested in a memo by US Representative (Texas) Maury Maverick dated March 30, 1944, banning "gobbledygook language"

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

gobbledygook (usually uncountable, plural gobbledygooks)

1. (informal) Nonsense; meaningless or encrypted language.
2. (informal) Something written in an overly complex, incoherent, or incomprehensible manner.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:nonsense

Translations

Nonsense; meaningless or encrypted language.

• Dutch: koeterwaals (nl) n
• Esperanto: galimatio
• Finnish: liirumlaarum (fi), diibadaaba (fi)
• French: charabia (fr) m, gloubi-boulga (fr) m
• German: Geschwafel (de) n, Kauderwelsch (de) n
• Italian: supercazzola

• Maori: reo kihi
• Norwegian: kaudervelsk m, galimatias n
• Polish: bełkot (pl) m
• Portuguese: algaravia (pt) f
• Russian: галиматья́ (ru) f (galimatʹjá)
• Swedish: gallimatias (sv), rappakalja (sv), dravel (sv), struntprat (sv), goja (sv), strunt (sv)

Something written in an overly complex, incoherent, or incomprehensible manner.

• Finnish: kapulakieli (fi)
• French: galimatias (fr) m

• Italian: burocratese (it)
• Swedish: fikonspråk (sv), högtravande kanslistil