gossip
Americannoun
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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
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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.
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Archaic. a friend, especially a woman.
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
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Chiefly British Dialect. to stand godparent to.
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Archaic. to repeat like a gossip.
noun
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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
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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
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gossipsimple
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gossipssimple
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have gossipedperfect
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have gossippedperfect
-
has gossipedperfect
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has gossippedperfect
-
am gossipingprogressive
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am gossippingprogressive
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are gossipingprogressive
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are gossippingprogressive
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is gossipingprogressive
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is gossippingprogressive
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have been gossipingperfect progressive
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have been gossippingperfect progressive
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has been gossipingperfect progressive
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has been gossippingperfect progressive
Past
-
gossipedsimple
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gossippedsimple
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had gossipedperfect
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had gossippedperfect
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was gossipingprogressive
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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:
But there is little in the public record to document this, other than items in the gossip pages about their golf bouts.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
Kim Kardashian paid tribute to Campbell on social media, describing her as her as "my best friend, my gossip buddy, my forever twin".
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
He was an engaging, funny and self-deprecating raconteur, ready with the quotable quip and the off-the-record gossip, which always assured him of an audience.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
There was something calming and oceanic about the rhythm of rolls and cracks around her, blending with the ambient murmur of banter and gossip into white noise.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026
As Jackson’s land holdings, fame, and political ambitions grew, so did nasty gossip about Rachel’s first marriage.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
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
Capitol Hill gossips, including journalists from whom one might have hoped to hear something before now, evidently knew about Mr. Swalwell’s behavior for years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
Tisa’s reenactments, commentary, and energy earned her a comment from a viewer who dubbed her “the new and improved Wendy Williams,” signaling a changing future for even legacy gossips and talk show hosts.
From Slate ● Jun. 10, 2025
Williams has long understood why people love gossip and equally adore and abhor gossips: they cause controversy, and sometimes force a public, corrective response.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2024
Some rely on it as a confidant, for it’s known to have a compassionate, impartial ear, and never gossips.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
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
Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.
From "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling
In the forepart of the oven, on either hand, stood a variety of pots and pipkins, and gossipped together in their several tones.
From Yiddish Tales by Various
And Flora devoutly kissed her, then gossipped pleasantly about the other guests and the people in the neighborhood.
From Ancestors A Novel by Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn
His characters are the friends and acquaintances of everybody,—quoted, referred to, gossipped about, discussed, criticized, as though they were actual beings.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 07, May, 1858 by Various
And Jessie, being new to the fashionable world, shrank from having her heart-history gossipped about.
From Jessamine A Novel by Harland, Marion
She sank lower than ever; she missed going to her work oftener, gossipped for whole days, and became as soft as a rag whenever she had any work to do.
From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 08 — Fiction by Mee, Arthur
As rumours spread that Anne Boleyn, the English queen, is about to be executed, three working-class women in Essex sit around drinking, gossiping and wondering what it all means for them.
From BBC ● May 13, 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 time guys normally spend learning in GED or college classes, or socializing and building community in prisoner-run workshops, is now wasted inside their cells gossiping and scheming.
From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2025
Something that I think is pretty interesting, too, is the gossiping part of it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2025
“I heard the servants gossiping that some wolves had been seen near the house. One must have come in the windows. How dreadful! Fredrick, do something!”
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
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
A crowd had evidently collected round the door, for I heard the muffled sound of voices gossipping, but could not distinguish what they said.
From Tales of the Wonder Club, Volume II by Huth, Alexander
Though our family was a veritable lunatic asylum of poets, no one cared to translate the good creature's gossipping garrulity into verse.
From The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the First by Gozzi, Carlo
Of what do you suppose he would have informed us, had he indulged this bibliographical gossipping?
From Bibliomania; or Book-Madness A Bibliographical Romance by Dibdin, Thomas Frognall
Some were kindly and sympathising, some bitter and full of taunts; but the greater number were simply inquisitive, neither friendly nor hostile, but gossipping.
From The King's Daughters by Holt, Emily Sarah
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
