Words / W / General

waddle

verb/ˈwɒd(ə)l/

B1CEFR level
25/100Rarity: fairly common
NeutralRegister

To walk with short steps and a clumsy swaying motion.

The penguins waddled in a solemn line towards the water's edge.

Similar: toddle, wobble, shuffle

Origin: Frequentative of 'wade'.

Topic: swaying gait in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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