Meanings
nounrumor (countable and uncountable, plural rumors)
plural rumors · alternative Commonwealth rumour
- UScountableA statement or claim of questionable accuracy, from no known reliable source, usually spread by word of mouth.
vile rumor
4 more examples
There's a rumor going round that he's going to get married.
a rumor going round
vicious rumors
spread a rumor
Synonyms: word, gossip, hearsay, talk, tittle-tattle
- USuncountableInformation or misinformation of the kind contained in such claims.
They say he used to be a thief, but that's just rumor.
Synonyms: noise
- USarchaicuncountableReport, 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.
1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods, London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 3 - USobsoleteuncountableFame, reputation.
verbrumor (third-person singular simple present rumors, present participle rumoring, simple past and past participle rumored)
present singular third person rumors · participle present rumoring · participle past rumored · past rumored · alternative Commonwealth rumour
- UStransitiveusuallyTo tell a rumor about; to gossip.
John is rumored to be next in line for a promotion.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA statement or claim of questionable accuracy, from no known reliable source, usually spread by word of mouth.
nounInformation or misinformation of the kind contained in such claims.
Similar
Broader
More synonyms by meaning
noungossip (usually a mixture of truth and untruth) passed around by word of mouth
Broader
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*h₃rewH-“to shout, to roar”
- Latinrūmor“common talk”
- Old Frenchrumeur
- Middle Englishrumour
- Englishrumor
From Middle English rumour, from Old French rumeur, from Latin rūmor (“common talk”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃rewH- (“to shout, to roar”).
More words from Middle English, Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek θροῦς, φάτις
- θροῦς (throûs)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- φάτις (phátis)statement or claim from no known reliable source
Arabic إِشَاعَة, شَائِعَة
- إِشَاعَة (ʔišāʕa)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- شَائِعَة (šāʔiʕa)statement or claim from no known reliable source
Bengali কিংবদন্তি, গুজব
- কিংবদন্তি (kiṅbodonti)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- গুজব (gujob)uncountable: information
Bulgarian мълва́, слух
- мълва́ (mălvá)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- слух (sluh)statement or claim from no known reliable source
Catalan rumor
- rumorstatement or claim from no known reliable source
Chinese Cantonese 傳聞 /传闻, 傳言 /传言
- 傳聞 /传闻 (cyun⁴ man⁴)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- 傳言 /传言 (cyun⁴ jin⁴)statement or claim from no known reliable source
Chinese Mandarin 傳聞 /传闻, 傳言 /传言
- 傳聞 /传闻 (chuánwén)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- 傳言 /传言 (chuányán)statement or claim from no known reliable source
Czech zvěst, drby
- zvěststatement or claim from no known reliable source
- drbystatement or claim from no known reliable source
- fámastatement or claim from no known reliable source
- drbyuncountable: information
Danish rygte, forlydende
- rygtestatement or claim from no known reliable source
- forlydendestatement or claim from no known reliable source
Dutch gerucht, geruchten
- geruchtstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- geruchtenuncountable: information
Esperanto onidiro
- onidirostatement or claim from no known reliable source
Estonian faama
- faamastatement or claim from no known reliable source
Finnish huhu, huhu
- huhustatement or claim from no known reliable source
- huhuuncountable: information
- kuulopuheuncountable: information
French rumeur, bruit
- rumeurstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- bruitstatement or claim from no known reliable source
German Gerücht, Gerüchte
- Gerüchtstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- Gerüchteuncountable: information
- Geredeuncountable: information
Greek φήμη, φήμες
- φήμη (fími)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- φήμες (fímes)uncountable: information
- διαδόσεις (diadóseis)uncountable: information
Hebrew שְׁמוּעָה
- שְׁמוּעָה (shmu'á)statement or claim from no known reliable source
Hindi अफ़वाह, अफवाह
- अफ़वाह (afvāh)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- अफवाह (aphvāh)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- अफवा (aphvā)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- गप्प (gapp)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- प्रवाद (pravād)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- जनश्रुति (janaśruti)statement or claim from no known reliable source
Hungarian híresztelés, szóbeszéd
- híresztelésstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- szóbeszédstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- pletykastatement or claim from no known reliable source
Indonesian kabar burung, isu
- kabar burungstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- isustatement or claim from no known reliable source
- kabar anginstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- desas-desusstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- rumorstatement or claim from no known reliable source
Irish ráfla
- ráflastatement or claim from no known reliable source
Italian voce, voci di corridoio
- vocestatement or claim from no known reliable source
- voci di corridoiostatement or claim from no known reliable source
Japanese 噂, 伝聞
- 噂 (uwasa)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- 伝聞 (denbun)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- 噂 (uwasa)uncountable: information
Korean 소문, 풍문
- 소문 (somun)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- 풍문 (pungmun)statement or claim from no known reliable source
Latin rūmor, auditus
- rūmorstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- auditusstatement or claim from no known reliable source
Latvian bauma, baumas
- baumastatement or claim from no known reliable source
- baumasuncountable: information
Lithuanian gandas
- gandasstatement or claim from no known reliable source
Malay khabar angin
- khabar anginstatement or claim from no known reliable source
Māori waha kau, wawara
- waha kaustatement or claim from no known reliable source
- wawarastatement or claim from no known reliable source
- kohimustatement or claim from no known reliable source
- tūtarastatement or claim from no known reliable source
Norwegian Bokmål rykte
- ryktestatement or claim from no known reliable source
Polish pogłoska, plotka
- pogłoskastatement or claim from no known reliable source
- plotkastatement or claim from no known reliable source
- pierdołastatement or claim from no known reliable source
Portuguese rumor, boato
- rumorstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- boatostatement or claim from no known reliable source
- rumoruncountable: information
- boatouncountable: information
Romanian zvon, bârfă
- zvonstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- bârfăstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- rumoarestatement or claim from no known reliable source
- zvonuncountable: information
Russian молва́, слух
- молва́ (molvá)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- слух (slux)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- слу́хи (slúxi)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- то́лки (tólki)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- слу́хи (slúxi)uncountable: information
- молва́ (molvá)uncountable: information
Scottish Gaelic fathann, fathann
- fathannstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- fathannuncountable: information
Slovak reči, fáma
- rečistatement or claim from no known reliable source
- fámastatement or claim from no known reliable source
- povesťstatement or claim from no known reliable source
Spanish rumor, voz
- rumorstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- vozstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- rumorologíauncountable: information
- habladuríasuncountable: information
- rumorearTranslations
Swedish rykte, rykte
- ryktestatement or claim from no known reliable source
- rykteuncountable: information
Tagalog sabi-sabi, tsismis
- sabi-sabistatement or claim from no known reliable source
- tsismisstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- usap-usapanstatement or claim from no known reliable source
Tamil வதந்தி, புரளி
- வதந்தி (vatanti)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- புரளி (puraḷi)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- கிசுகிசு (kicukicu)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- புரளி (puraḷi)uncountable: information
- கிசுகிசு (kicukicu)Translations
Thai ข่าวลือ
- ข่าวลือ (kàao-lʉʉ)statement or claim from no known reliable source
Turkish söylenti, rivayet
- söylentistatement or claim from no known reliable source
- rivayetstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- şayiastatement or claim from no known reliable source
- söylentiuncountable: information
- rivayetuncountable: information
Ukrainian чу́тка, чутки́
- чу́тка (čútka)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- чутки́ (čutký)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- слух (slux)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- плі́тка (plítka)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- поголо́ска (poholóska)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- по́голос (póholos)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- погові́р (pohovír)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- го́вір (hóvir)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- чу́йка (čújka)statement or claim from no known reliable source
Urdu اَفْواہ, آوازَہ
- اَفْواہ (afvāh)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- آوازَہ (āvāza)statement or claim from no known reliable source
Vietnamese tin đồn, lời đồn
- tin đồnstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- lời đồnstatement or claim from no known reliable source
Welsh sôn, si
- sônstatement or claim from no known reliable source
- sistatement or claim from no known reliable source
- storistatement or claim from no known reliable source
Yiddish פּליאָטקע, פּאָטש
- פּליאָטקע (plyotke)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- פּאָטש (potsh)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- שמועה (shmue)statement or claim from no known reliable source
- שלח־מנותstatement or claim from no known reliable source
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with rumor
All rhymes →Cite this entry
APA
rumor. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rumor
MLA
“rumor.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rumor. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rumor,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rumor.
Source: rumor on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.