babel Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun (Genesis 11:1-11) a tower built by Noah's descendants (probably in Babylon) who intended it to reach up to heaven; God foiled them by confusing their language so they could no longer understand one another
    Tower of Babel.
  2. noun a confusion of voices and other sounds

WordNet

Ba"bel noun
Etymology
Heb. Babel, the name of the capital of Babylonia; in Genesis associated with the idea of "confusion"
Definitions
  1. The city and tower in the land of Shinar, where the confusion of languages took place.
    Therefore is the name of it called Babel. Gen. xi. 9.
  2. Hence: A place or scene of noise and confusion; a confused mixture of sounds, as of voices or languages.
    That babel of strange heathen languages. Hammond.
    The grinding babel of the street. R. L. Stevenson.

Webster 1913