DictionaryAI

rumour

UKROO-muh/ˈɹuːmə(ɹ)/USROO-mer/ˈɹuːmɚ/

Pluralrumours

Verbrumours, rumouring, rumoured

US spellingrumor

6 meanings of rumour

Practice

  1. 1
    unconfirmed storynouncountable or uncountable
    A story or piece of information passed from person to person whose truth is uncertain and which cannot be traced to a reliable source; also, such talk in general.

    A rumour began circulating that the factory would close before Christmas.

    The minister dismissed the reports as vicious rumours spread by her opponents.

    UsageUsually a rumour that or a rumour about something; rumours go round or circulate, and people spread them.

    Similarstory, whisper

    Note

    Latin rūmor meant simply common talk, and the word still carries that sense of something said by everyone and vouched for by no one. American English spells it rumor.

  2. 2
    said to beverbtransitive
    To report or spread something as unconfirmed talk, usually in the passive (be rumoured to, it is rumoured that).

    The striker is rumoured to be close to signing for a club in Spain.

    It is widely rumoured that the Chancellor will raise fuel duty in the Budget.

    UsageSeldom active with a named speaker; to say who passes it on, use spread a rumour.

    Similarreport, say, allege

    Note

    The verb lives almost entirely in the passive: someone is rumoured to be leaving, or it is rumoured that something will happen. The passive suits it, because it leaves the source unnamed, just as the noun's talk has none.

  3. 3
    newsnounarchaicuncountable
    General news or report of something: whatever information has reached people about it.

    For months no rumour of the lost expedition reached the families waiting at home, and many gave up hope.

    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

    Similarreport

    Note

    The older, neutral use, in which rumour is simply word of something reaching people, with no suggestion that it may be false. It survives in old and deliberately old-fashioned writing, often as rumour of or no rumour of: in Lord Dunsany's Time and the Gods (1906) there hath been 'no rumour' of a distant city. Read no doubt into it there; that shade belongs to the everyday sense.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Rumour has an archaic, neutral sense meaning report, news or information in general. en.wiktionary.org
    • Lord Dunsany wrote Time and the Gods. en.wikipedia.org
    • Time and the Gods was first published in 1906. en.wikipedia.org
    • The book contains 'no rumour' in a passage describing an isolated city; the expression means that no report of it has reached others. en.wikisource.org

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    famenounobsoleteuncountable
    The fame or reputation that a person or thing has among others.
    Note

    Latin rūmor meant common talk, and in this obsolete use that talk has settled into a person's standing rather than a story about them. Met in older writing, the word should be read as the name someone had made among others, not as gossip about them. Fame and reputation now do this work, and everyday English uses the word for the unconfirmed talk of the everyday meaning.

  2. 5
    nounobsoleteuncountable
    A loud uproar, whether noise in general, the shouting of a crowd, or a public protest.
    Note

    Here rumour means noisy commotion: the shouting of a crowd, a din or a public outcry. Modern English usually uses clamour, din or outcry instead. It overlaps with the prolonged, indistinct noise, where the emphasis is on the sound's lack of clarity rather than its loudness.

  3. 6
    faint noisenounliterarycountable or uncountable
    A prolonged noise, too faint or confused to be heard clearly.

    Through the open window came the distant rumour of traffic on the motorway.

    Prithee, listen well; / I heard a bustling rumour like a fray, / And the wind brings it from the Capitol.
    1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”
    Note

    A sound rather than a story, and the meaning closest to the word's roots, which go back to an Indo-European word meaning to shout or roar. In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare has 'a bustling rumour like a fray' carried on the wind from the Capitol: confused noise heard from far off. The meaning lives on in literary writing, where a novelist may still hear the rumour of the sea, but in everyday speech the word carries only talk.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Rumour ultimately derives from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning to shout or roar. en.wiktionary.org
    • Shakespeare uses the quoted wording in Julius Caesar; Portia describes noise brought by the wind from the Capitol in Act 2, scene 4. shakespeare-navigators.ewu.edu

Practice

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Origin

English had rumour in the Middle English period, taken from Old French rumour or rumor. Behind it lies Latin rūmor, 'common talk', and ultimately the Proto-Indo-European root *rewH-, 'to shout, roar'.