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fiddle-faddle

/ˌˈfɪdl ˌˈfædl/
IPA guide

Fiddle-faddle is silly, insignificant nonsense. Fiddle-faddle doesn't amount to much.

Fiddle-faddle usually refers to nonsense that is particularly insubstantial: trivial stuff that means little. If you're trying to discuss something serious, and someone makes an irrelevant point, you could say "That's fiddle-faddle!" This is a reduplicative word — like hocus pocus and higgledy-piggledy — which means most of the word repeats. Lots of reduplicative words mean nonsense, such as mumbo-jumbo and jibber-jabber.

Definitions of fiddle-faddle
  1. noun
    trivial nonsense
    synonyms: balderdash, piffle
    see moresee less
    type of:
    bunk, hokum, meaninglessness, nonsense, nonsensicality
    a message that seems to convey no meaning
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