Ba"bel (?), n. [Heb. Babel, the name of the capital of Babylonia; in Genesis associated with the idea of "confusion"]
1.
The city and tower in the land of Shinar, where the confusion of languages took place.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel.
Gen. xi. 9.
2.
Hence: A place or scene of noise and confusion; a confused mixture of sounds, as of voices or languages.
That babel of strange heathen languages.
Hammond.
The grinding babel of the street.
R. L. Stevenson.
© Webster 1913.