RUMOR

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does rumor mean? 

• RUMOR (noun)
  The noun RUMOR has 1 sense:

1. gossip (usually a mixture of truth and untruth) passed around by word of mouth

  Familiarity information: RUMOR used as a noun is very rare.

• RUMOR (verb)
  The verb RUMOR has 1 sense:

1. tell or spread rumors

  Familiarity information: RUMOR used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RUMOR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Gossip (usually a mixture of truth and untruth) passed around by word of mouth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

hearsay; rumor; rumour

Hypernyms ("rumor" is a kind of...):

comment; gossip; scuttlebutt (a report (often malicious) about the behavior of other people)

Derivation:

rumor (tell or spread rumors)

• RUMOR (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they rumor    ... he / she / it rumors   
Past simple: rumored   
Past participle: rumored   
-ing form: rumoring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tell or spread rumors

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

bruit; rumor; rumour

Context example:

It was rumored that the next president would be a woman

Hypernyms (to "rumor" is one way to...):

dish the dirt; gossip (wag one's tongue; speak about others and reveal secrets or intimacies)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

rumor (gossip (usually a mixture of truth and untruth) passed around by word of mouth)

 Context examples 

"There was rumor that they went to the South Seas—were lost on a trading schooner in a typhoon, or something like that."

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

It is so rumored in the guard-room, and that Sir Nigel will take the field once more.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Indian legends would alone have been my guide, for I found that rumors of a strange land were common among all the riverine tribes.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Area 51 has for decades been rumored to be a facility for UFO and extraterrestrials research.

(Millions don't turn up to 'storm' US airbase for extraterrestrial evidence, Wikinews)

Sometimes it is indirect, such as spreading rumors or trying to make others reject someone.

(Bullying, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

I heard rumors about Fred and you last year, and it's my private opinion that if he had not been called home so suddenly and detained so long, something would have come of it, hey?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The excitement which had been caused through those parts of South America which we had to traverse was imagined by us to be purely local, and I can assure our friends in England that we had no notion of the uproar which the mere rumor of our experiences had caused through Europe.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

During the next few minutes the rumor that Amy March had got twenty-four delicious limes (she ate one on the way) and was going to treat circulated through her 'set', and the attentions of her friends became quite overwhelming.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Nay, said the Earl of Angus, it is not so certain; for the peasant with whom we spoke last night said that it was rumored that Don Tello, the Spanish king's brother, had ridden with six thousand chosen men to beat up the prince's camp.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

'He would not,' he said, 'stand for more than a moment between that vast assembly and the treat which lay before them. It was not for him to anticipate what Professor Summerlee, who was the spokesman of the committee, had to say to them, but it was common rumor that their expedition had been crowned by extraordinary success.'

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)