rumour
part of speech
noun (a rumour, rumours); verb (be rumoured)
meaning for a pupil
1) A rumour is a story or piece of news that people pass from one to another, which may not be true and has not been checked. tree →
2) To be rumoured means people say it but nobody is sure: It is rumoured that school will close. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life and lessons on friendship and online safety, rumours can hurt people's feelings and spread fast; a good rule is to check if it is true, kind and necessary before passing it on. In stories, rumours often cause trouble or misunderstandings. Phrases: spread a rumour, start a rumour, there is a rumour that, just a rumour.
examples
- There is a rumour that we have a new teacher. tree →
- Do not spread rumours about other people. tree →
- It was only a rumour, it was not true. tree →
- Who started that rumour? tree →
- The rumour spread around the playground by lunchtime. tree →
- Rumours can be very hurtful. tree →
- It is rumoured that the old house is haunted. tree →
- Check the facts before you believe a rumour. tree →
- Then, one day, a rumour reached the king that a large army was marching against him. tree →
note
British, Irish, Australian, NZ and Canadian spelling: rumour; American spelling: rumor. Countable. A rumour is not the same as a lie: it may be true or false, but nobody has checked it. Spreading untrue rumours can be a form of bullying.
In the corpora
- Rumours about classmates are cruel, especially about their bodies; you can stop one by not passing it on.
- "I'm just saying what I heard" and "I only told one person" are still spreading a rumour.
- Separating facts, reports and guesses keeps you from spreading rumours as facts.
- A rumour is a story passed around without proof; it is not a fact just because many people repeat it.
- Spreading rumours and sending mean messages online are forms of bullying.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «rumour» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.