Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Babel"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Babel \Ba"bel\, n. [Heb. B[=a]bel, the name of the capital of
Babylonia; in Genesis associated with the idea of
``confusion'']
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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
babel
n 1: a confusion of voices and other sounds
2: (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 [syn: {Tower
of Babel}, {Babel}]
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