psychobabble
- noun
- /ˈsaɪkoʊˌbæbəl/
- Literature
- Does that psychobabble really work on anybody?
- a bunch of psychobabble
- psychobabble buzzwords
- a lot of psychobabble
Examples
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Like after Advanced Calc and Chaucer, I can follow the psychobabble.
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Forget the psychobabble.
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"Oh, cut the psychobabble, Doctor!
Fiction book (1995) -
"Sounds like psychobabble to me, Alan."
Fiction book (1995) -
Okay, enough of my psychobabble.
Blog text (6) -
No amount of psychobabble can cure the blues like a good friend's shoulder, a bottle of tequila and a...
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Here it comes-- psychobabble.
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That's called psychobabble.
Blog text (23) -
Perhaps we could have done without the psychobabble, but the fact that we discussed the killing of Bin Laden as a means of providing a national catharsis is evidence of a notable American achievement.
Academic text (2011) -
Many people are frustrated by the psychobabble they often hear on talk shows.
Synonyms
Words or ideas that do not make sense
Speech or writing that does not make sense
Confusing talk that hides the truth or tries to impress people
Soft, happy sounds a baby makes before speaking clearly
Confusing speech or writing full of technical words that most people cannot understand
Nonsense language that sounds like real speech but has no clear meaning
Confusing speech or writing that makes no sense
Language that is hard to understand because it uses many difficult words or nonsense
Confusing words from computers and high-tech areas that most people do not understand
Language that uses environmental words to sound caring without real meaning
Confusing education words that sound important but mean little
Talk about yoga that uses many words people find hard to understand
Antonyms
How Jargon-filled
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Psychobabble comes from the Greek word psyche meaning 'mind', as in psychology, plus the English word babble, which means 'to speak foolishly'. So psychobabble is talk that uses psychology words but is empty or without real meaning.