hearsay

«hearsay» in Mova's school dictionary: Things you have heard from other people but do not know… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (hearsay — uncountable)

meaning for a pupil

1) Things you have heard from other people but do not know are true; rumour. tree →

2) (law) Evidence in court about what someone else said, not what the witness saw themselves; it is often not allowed. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life it warns that a story is gossip; in law and history lessons it is weak evidence. Phrases: it's just hearsay, based on hearsay, hearsay evidence.

examples

• That's just hearsay, nobody actually saw it. tree →
• You shouldn't believe hearsay about people. tree →
• The judge said the statement was hearsay. tree →
• The story spread round school by hearsay. tree →
• Is this a fact or just hearsay? tree →
• Good journalists check facts instead of printing hearsay. tree →

note

Uncountable. From hear + say. Checking sources is the way to tell fact from hearsay.

In the corpora

• The first question is who says it; something heard from someone who heard it from someone else is called hearsay.
• "My uncle works there" in a comment is hearsay: a claim nobody can check.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «hearsay» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.