tremble

1. 1.

   a reflex motion caused by cold or fear or excitement

   Synonymsshivershake

   Broaderreflex

1. 1.

   move or jerk quickly and involuntarily up and down or sideways

   “His hands were trembling when he signed the document”

   Broadershake

   Narrowershudderquiver

Other forms of tremble

plural

trembles·

past tense

trembled·

present participle

trembling·

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 tremble

What does tremble mean?

tremble means "a reflex motion caused by cold or fear or excitement". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in tremble?

tremble has 2 syllables: trem-ble. The stress falls on "trem". In IPA it is /ˈtɹɛmbəl/.

What is another word for tremble?

Close synonyms include shiver, shake. 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 tremble a common word?

tremble is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.