Meanings
present singular third person spreads the word · participle present spreading the word
- idiomaticTo tell a lot of people; to inform as many people as one can.
His rendition of Herr Barkheimer was so awful that many people thought it to be a drawing of a demon coming to steal their souls. They threw the books into the fire to save themselves, then spread the word not to buy anything printed by Gutenberg.
2005, Annabelle du Fouet, “The murky world from whence it all came” (chapter 2), in Weather Balloons Make Rotten Sex Toys, Ellora's Cave, →ISBN, page 461 more example
A famous example of viral marketing is the rapid spread of Hotmail as a free email service. Attached to each email was a short advertisement and Hotmail's URL, and customers spread the word about Hotmail simply by emailing their family and friends.
2006, Oded Maimon, Lior Rokach, Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Handbook, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 424
Translations
Finnish levittää sanaa
- levittää sanaatell a lot of people
French passer le mot
- passer le mottell a lot of people
German weitersagen, weiterverbreiten
- weitersagentell a lot of people
- weiterverbreitentell a lot of people
Polish rozpowiadać, rozpowiedzieć
- rozpowiadaćtell a lot of people
- rozpowiedziećtell a lot of people
Spanish pasar la voz, correr la voz
- pasar la voztell a lot of people
- correr la voztell a lot of people
- difundir el mensajetell a lot of people
Cite this entry
spread the word. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spread%20the%20word
“spread the word.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spread%20the%20word. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “spread the word,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spread%20the%20word.
Source: spread the word on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.