quibble

1. 1.

   an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections

   Synonymsquidditycavil

   Broaderevasion

Other forms of quibble

plural

quibbles·

past tense

quibbled·

present participle

quibbling·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about quibble

What does quibble mean?

quibble means "evade the truth of a point or question by raising irrelevant objections". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in quibble?

quibble has 2 syllables: quib-ble. The stress falls on "quib". In IPA it is /ˈkwɪbəl/.

What is another word for quibble?

Close synonyms include niggle, pettifog, bicker, squabble, brabble. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is quibble a common word?

quibble is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.