Jitter

//ˈd͡ʒɪtɚ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A nervous action; a tic. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    A program or routine that performs jitting; a just-in-time compiler.
  3. 3
    a small irregular movement wordnet
  4. 4
    A state of nervousness. countable, in-plural, often, uncountable, with-definite-article

    "That creepy movie gave me the jitters."

  5. 5
    small rapid variations in a waveform resulting from fluctuations in the voltage supply or mechanical vibrations or other sources wordnet
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    An abrupt and unwanted variation of one or more signal characteristics. countable, uncountable

    "Now you have mirror-clear TV without picture flopover, jitter, tear!"

  2. 7
    A random positioning of data points to avoid visual overlap. countable, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To be nervous. intransitive
  2. 2
    To position data points randomly to avoid visual overlap.

Synonyms

All synonyms
fidgetfidgettremble

Example

More examples

"Is it not concerning the way the markets jitter about these days?"

Etymology

Etymology 1

Possibly alteration of chitter (“to tremble, shiver”), from Middle English chittern (“to twitter, chatter”). Ultimately onomatopoeic; compare didder and teeter as well as German zittern.

Etymology 2

From jit + -er.

Related phrases

jitter lapsejust in time

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.