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Garble is a word with a spicy history, and we're not just saying that to curry favor with gastronomes. It is presumed that this word was passed from Arabic to Mediterranean Europe through trade in Eastern spices, and was first introduced into English from the Anglo-French verb garbeler, used for the action of sifting out impurities—such as dust, dirt, husks, etc.—from spices. In the 15th century, the English garble carried this same meaning as well as "to cull," i.e., to sort or pick out the best parts of something. If these origins seem curious given garble’s now more common meanings of "to so alter or distort as to create a wrong impression" and "to cause to be unclear or confusing; to introduce error into," consider that one way of garbling someone’s story is to take bits and pieces out of context.
Examples of garble in a Sentence
Leila Sloman, Quanta Magazine, 18 Apr. 2025
SecNav’s just a big fan, and that message got garbled in a chain-of-command game of telephone.
—Sara Netzley, EW.com, 11 Feb. 2025
Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 21 July 2024
This is cumbersome, which is why some Web3 companies have carved out a small but profitable niche to allow users to translate their wallet address from alphanumeric garble to a username, or from 0xAA2B52A6DF7DBFD07640BDA2B373D37BACD81DF5 to simple.nft.
—Ben Weiss, Fortune Crypto, 17 July 2023
See All Example Sentences for garble
Cite this Entry
“Garble.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/garble. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
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