rumormonger means A person who spreads rumors. It carries an Arena rating of 1476, earned across 129 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, rumormonger ranks #969 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #3,515 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #3,515 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,518 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
Why “rumormonger” is a great word
RUMORMONGER — [Noun] A person who habitually spreads rumors, especially of a malicious or sensational nature. Its etymology is a stark compound: 'rumor' (an unverified report or story) plus 'monger' (a dealer or trader in a specified commodity), first recorded in 1930–35. Unlike a gossip, who trades in the idle, sometimes benign currency of personal lives, or an informant, who traffics in confidential facts, the rumormonger deals exclusively in the counterfeit coin of speculation and malice. It is the hushed voice at the edge of the party, the insistent tap of a forwarded message, the slow, corrosive drip that stains a reputation—a small, human engine accelerating the entropy of trust, dealing in a commodity that costs nothing to manufacture and everything to believe.
Etymology
Compound of rumor + monger.
noun
- A person who spreads rumors.e.g.“Near-synonyms: gossipmonger, newsmonger, scandalmonger; blabbermouth, talebearer, telltale; gossip, gossiper; see also Thesaurus:gossiper”
verb
- To spread rumors and gossip.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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