gossip
Americannoun
-
gossip
plural
-
idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others.
the endless gossip about Hollywood stars.
- Synonyms:
- chitchat, palaver, hearsay, small talk
-
light, familiar talk or writing.
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Also gossiper, gossipper. a person given to tattling or idle talk.
- Synonyms:
- rumormonger, chatterer
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Chiefly British Dialect. a godparent.
-
Archaic. a friend, especially a woman.
verb (used without object)
-
gossips,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gossiped,
past participle, past
-
gossipped,
past participle, past
-
gossiping,
present participle
-
gossipping
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
gossips,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gossiped,
past participle, past
-
gossipped,
past participle, past
-
gossiping,
present participle
-
gossipping
present participle
-
Chiefly British Dialect. to stand godparent to.
-
Archaic. to repeat like a gossip.
noun
-
casual and idle chat
to have a gossip with a friend
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a conversation involving malicious chatter or rumours about other people
a gossip about the neighbours
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Also called: gossipmonger. a person who habitually talks about others, esp maliciously
-
light easy communication
to write a letter full of gossip
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archaic a close woman friend
verb
Synonym Usage
Gossip, scandal apply to idle talk and newsmongering about the affairs of others. Gossip is light chat or talk: to trade gossip about the neighbors. Scandal is rumor or general talk that is damaging to reputation; it is usually more or less malicious: The town never lived down the election scandal.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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gossipernoun
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gossipingnoun
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intergossipverb
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gossipyadjective
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ungossipingadjective
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gossipinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
gossipsimple
-
gossipssimple
-
have gossipedperfect
-
have gossippedperfect
-
has gossipedperfect
-
has gossippedperfect
-
am gossipingprogressive
-
am gossippingprogressive
-
are gossipingprogressive
-
are gossippingprogressive
-
is gossipingprogressive
-
is gossippingprogressive
-
have been gossipingperfect progressive
-
have been gossippingperfect progressive
-
has been gossipingperfect progressive
-
has been gossippingperfect progressive
Past
-
gossipedsimple
-
gossippedsimple
-
had gossipedperfect
-
had gossippedperfect
-
was gossipingprogressive
-
was gossippingprogressive
-
were gossipingprogressive
-
were gossippingprogressive
-
had been gossipingperfect progressive
-
had been gossippingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gossip
First recorded before 1050; Middle English gossib, godsib(be), Old English godsibb, originally “godparent,” equivalent to god + sibb “related”; see origin at god, sib
Explanation
Gossip is conversation that's light, informal, and usually about other people's business. It can be fun to gossip about others, but no one likes it when they're the subject of gossip. You can find people just about anywhere who love to chatter about the latest rumors and stories: they're gossips who love to gossip. You've probably seen all the celebrity gossip featured in the tabloids: stories about who's dating, marrying, divorcing, or having a baby. But don't trust everything you hear — gossip isn't always accurate, and often people spread untrue gossip just to mess with someone they don't like.
Vocabulary lists containing gossip
Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 2
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Simply Scandalous!
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Sula
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
After three orderly decades as a journalist and gossip columnist, Jeannette Walls delivered a shock to readers with this account of her chaotic upbringing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
I love that you validate gossip as part of the excavation process for making sure you’re having the right fight with the right information.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
People with well-recognised Cuban-American surnames – like Bacardi and Babun – chat around the pool about the lamentable state of the island's economy, and share titbits of gossip about the latest political rumblings.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
But under the constant watch of phone cameras and gossip that travels at the speed of social media feeds, they face greater pressures.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026
That left them plenty of time to gossip, tell stories, play with the children and just hang out.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
She smiles, laughs, cries, makes jokes, stomps her foot, flirts and gossips about other women with a girlfriend.
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026
Much of the chatter never moves past a relatively small, dishy circle of political gossips because the supposed misdeeds, while titillating, can’t stand up to rigorous scrutiny.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
Then gossips chattered that a huge “bear raid,” or manipulation of stocks by short sellers, would be launched the following morning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
She shops at Zabar’s, does Pilates on Columbus Avenue and resides comfortably in a prewar high rise between West End and Riverside, where she gossips about private lives as though they were front-page news.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2023
I shake my head primly, feeling like a real goody-goody or at least a barren subject for the gossips, present company included.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
As attendees roamed the corridors of the suburban Dallas resort and gossiped over drinks in the faux-adobe sports bar, there was no sense of a coming contest.
From Slate ● Apr. 17, 2026
Because the home has been staged, buyers won’t be able to sit at the very kitchen table where the Kardashian clan gossiped over salads, or the poolside lounges where they often sunned themselves.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 17, 2026
As spectators filed through security screening then streamed into the courtroom, they gossiped as key players strode by as though in a stage play, including Dick Harpootlian, the lead defense lawyer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
During his childhood, Almodóvar sometimes sat and listened under the kitchen table while his mother and other women gossiped and shared secrets, Moore says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2024
My half-sisters gossiped loudly, while I sat cracking seeds and laying their flesh in a pile.
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
In company with Lyon she walked up and down the deck, looking so joyous that the men about the place could but remark upon it as they gossipped with each other.
From Cruel As The Grave by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth
Warwick never rummaged work-baskets, gossipped, or paid compliments for want of something to do.
From Moods by Louisa May Alcott
Had I driven in from Charleville alone I might have gossipped with all the idlers of the village, but now that I am walking with a "Boycotted" person I seem to have become invisible.
From Disturbed Ireland Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81. by Bernard H. Becker
"The substance of the Criticisms on the Diversions of Purley was, with singular industry, gossipped by the present precious secretary of war, in Payne the bookseller's shop."
From The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown
First of all, your love affair is being gossipped about; secondly, this gossip has indirectly brought your lover into serious danger.
From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 07 — Fiction by Arthur Mee
There is no reality in which gossiping about someone’s weight loss, especially on social media, is a way toward helping or healing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
I felt like he was gossiping about me to a lot of people, and during one review, it became clear that he was.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 28, 2026
The last few weeks of celebrity gossiping, scheming and the occasional fart may feel like one big crazy jumbled dream.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2025
It was lunchtime, and this Chili’s in suburban Dallas was hopping: office friends gossiping, parents eating chips and salsa, their kids gaming on Chili’s-branded Ziosk tablets.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2025
Out in the alley a few women were gossiping.
From "The Thief Lord" by Cornelia Funke
Robinson and Frances Glandney, who married in 2002, were part of a group of longtime pals and she knew they’d start gossipping about her and the legendary singer-songwriter.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 28, 2023
"Fresh, lively, gay, and gossipping, these 'Fun Jottings' deservedly merit the enduring garb in which they appear."
From Autographs for Freedom, Volume 2 (of 2) (1854) by Julia Griffiths
A bon mot of a pretty and sarcastic lady, at the expense of both of them, is now going the round of the gossipping circles.
From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, April 1844 Volume 23, Number 4 by Lewis Gaylord Clark
So soon as the first canoe was made, Cary Singleton launched it, and, accompanied by two men, made the reconnoissance which so much frightened the gossipping laundresses.
From The Bastonnais Tale of the American Invasion of Canada in 1775-76 by John Lespérance
"It means that some accident or other has given malignant fools a chance of gossipping about her," said Sir Tancred in an unamiable tone.
From The Admirable Tinker Child of the World by Edgar Jepson
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