a speech disorder involving hesitations and involuntary repetitions of certain sounds
If someone has a stutter, they find it difficult to say the first sound of a word, and so they often hesitate or repeat it two or three times. He spoke with a pronounced stutter. = stammer
To hesitate or stumble in uttering words; to speak with spasmodic repetition or pauses; to stammer
If someone stutters, they have difficulty speaking because they find it hard to say the first sound of a word. I was trembling so hard, I thought I would stutter when I spoke. = stammer + stuttering stut·ter·ing He had to stop talking because if he'd kept on, the stuttering would have started
If something stutters along, it progresses slowly and unevenly. The old truck stuttered along the winding road The political debate stutters on. an inability to speak normally because you stutter = stammer
A speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, and by involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds
The act of one who stutters; restricted by some physiologists to defective speech due to inability to form the proper sounds, the breathing being normal, as distinguished from stammering
articulatory or phonatory problem that typically presents in childhood and is characterized by anxiety about efficacy of spoken communication, along with forced, involuntary hesitation, duplication, and protraction of sounds and syllables
adj. or stammering or dysphemia Speech defect affecting the rhythm and fluency of speech, with involuntary repetition of sounds or syllables and intermittent blocking or prolongation of sounds, syllables, and words. Stutterers consistently have trouble with words starting with consonants, first words in sentences, and multisyllable words. Stuttering has a psychological, not a physiological, basis, tending to appear in children pressured to speak fluently in public. In earlier times, stutterers were subjected to often torturous efforts to cure them. Today it is known that about 80% recover without treatment, usually by early adulthood. This probably results from increased self-esteem, acceptance of the problem, and consequent relaxation. See also speech therapy
[ 'st&-t&r ] (verb.) circa 1570. frequentative of English dialect stut to stutter, from Middle English stutten; akin to Dutch stotteren to stutter, Gothic stautan to strike; more at CONTUSION.