Babel

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

That brick structure, built in the plain of Shiner, and intended to prevent the very confusion and dispersion it brought about (Gen. 11:4-9⁴And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. ⁵And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. ⁶And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. ⁷Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. ⁸So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. ⁹Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:4‑9)).

Concise Bible Dictionary:

The word “Babel” occurs but twice: in Genesis 10:10¹⁰And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. (Genesis 10:10) it is the name of the first place mentioned as the beginning of the kingdom of Nimrod; and in Genesis 11:9⁹Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:9) the tower and city are called “Babel,” because there the language of man was confounded so that they did not understand one another. The tower was to be very high “unto heaven,” not with any thought of reaching heaven, but it declared the lofty imagination of man’s heart in the desire to make them a name, and to form a gathering point, which would prevent their being scattered. God would not suffer this, for man no sooner has power than he begins to abuse it. He could not therefore let them as one family exalt their own name, for the Lord’s name alone is to be exalted. As the result of God’s judgment they were scattered and formed into nations according to their tongues and families.

It may be that the name given to the city by Nimrod was Bab-il, signifying “gate of God” (and it is said that on the monuments this very name “The gate of God,” as the name of a city has been found); but that Jehovah altered it to Ba-bel, which signifies “confusion.”

Jackson’s Dictionary of Scripture Proper Names:

confusion (by mixing)