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rumor

nounverbcommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈɹuːmə//
  • United Kingdom//ˈɹʉwmə//
  • United States//ˈɹumɚ//
  • Australia//ˈɹʉːmə//

A statement or claim of questionable accuracy, from no known reliable source, usually spread by word of mouth.

noun

  1. 1

    A statement or claim of questionable accuracy, from no known reliable source, usually spread by word of mouth.

    There's a rumor going round that he's going to get married.

    vile rumor

    a rumor going round

    vicious rumors

  2. 2

    Information or misinformation of the kind contained in such claims.

    They say he used to be a thief, but that's just rumor.

  3. 3

    archaicReport, news, information in general.

    It stands a city aloof. There hath been no rumour of it—I alone have dreamed of it, and I may not be sure that my dreams are true.

  4. 4

    obsoleteFame, reputation.

  5. 5

    obsoleteClamor, din, outcry.

Etymology

From Middle English rumour, from Old French rumeur, from Latin rūmor (“common talk”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃rewH- (“to shout, to roar”).

verb

  1. 1

    To tell a rumor about; to gossip.

    John is rumored to be next in line for a promotion.

Forms

plural
rumors
past tense
rumored
past participle
rumored
present participle
rumoring
third person singular
rumors
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).