stammer

UK: /ˈstæmə^r/ US: /ˈstæmɚ/ ,(stam′ər)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

stam•mer /ˈstæmɚ/   v. 

1. to speak with uncontrollable breaks and pauses or repetitions of syllables or sounds: [no object]
   He stammered and got more nervous when the police asked him what he was doing.
   [~ (+ out) + object]
   He stammered (out) some lame excuse about being at the movies.
   [used with quotations]
   "I..uh, I..don't remember,'' he stammered.

n. [countable]

2. a stammering way of speaking.
3. a stammered word, phrase, or sentence.

stam•mer•er, n. [countable]
stam•mer•ing•ly, adv. 

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

stam•mer  (stam′ər), v.i. 

1. to speak with involuntary breaks and pauses, or with spasmodic repetitions of syllables or sounds.

v.t. 

2. to say with a stammer (often fol. by out).

n. 

3. a stammering mode of utterance.
4. a stammered utterance.

• bef. 1000; Middle English stammeren (verb, verbal), Old English stamerian (cognate with German stammern), equivalent. to stam stammering + -erian -er⁶; akin to Old Norse stamma to stammer, Gothic stams stammering

stam′mer•er, n. 
stam′mer•ing•ly, adv. 
Synonyms

• 1. pause, hesitate, falter.
  Stammer, stutter mean to speak with some form of difficulty.
  Stammer, the general term, suggests a speech difficulty that results in broken or inarticulate sounds and sometimes in complete stoppage of speech; it may be temporary, caused by sudden excitement, confusion, embarrassment, or other emotion, or it may be so deep-seated as to require special treatment for its correction.
  Stutter, the parallel term preferred in technical usage, designates a broad range of defects that produce spasmodic interruptions of the speech rhythm, repetitions, or prolongations of sounds or syllables:
  The child's stutter was no mere stammer of embarrassment.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

stammer / ˈstæmə/ verb

1. to speak or say (something) in a hesitant way, esp as a result of a speech disorder or through fear, stress, etc

noun

1. a speech disorder characterized by involuntary repetitions and hesitations

Etymology: Old English stamerian; related to Old Saxon stamarōn, Old High German stamm

ˈstammerer noun

ˈstammering noun , adjective