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
-
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:
Get hooked on some sports gossip: In the dog days of the NFL season, we need something to look forward to.
From Slate ● Oct. 22, 2026
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
It’s protecting against bad behavior, and when we throw the baby of insight out with the bathwater of gossip, we are leaving a lot of information on the table.
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
Sallie Moffat renewed her friendship, was always running out for a dish of gossip at the little house, or inviting ‘that poor dear’ to come in and spend the day at the big house.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
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
The chapters fly at the reader in column-length bursts, and the perspective bops about from that of our heroine to neighborhood gossips, savvy editors and that unforgettable mother-in-law.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
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
Rosenblum snaps back to the beginning of the summer, where she lays out her rogues’ gallery of gossips, hypocrites, cheaters.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 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
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
Busy markets sold butchered meats and fast-wilting vegetables, horse carts clattered, children shouted, and men and women gossiped in coffeehouses and read from printed newspapers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 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
Some are afraid that if they reveal too much they could be gossiped about.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 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
The town gossipped itself nearly crazy, but without any satisfactory result.
From Garman and Worse A Norwegian Novel by Alexander Lange Kielland
Have any of you gossipped like old women, either with him or with Deer Runner?”
From Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant by Mathew Joseph Holt
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 Arthur Mee
Her father, I suppose, wished to avoid the chance of her marriage being gossipped about.
From A Canadian Heroine, Volume 3 A Novel by Mrs. Harry Coghill
Sherwood Branciforte hunted out Andy Green where he lay at ease with head and shoulders propped against a wheel of the bed-wagon and gossipped with Pink and a few others.
From The Happy Family by B. M. Bower
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 briefly joined a book club of some work colleagues when I was teaching in rural Illinois, and it was fun, but most of our time was spent gossiping about, well, work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 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
"Avoid gossiping and talking about your friend or about their partner to others who could whip up hysteria," Shaheen-Zaffar tells the BBC.
From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2025
But I dread it because it means having to see Karly and Sal, too, smirking and gossiping and sniggering at everyone behind their hands.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
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
It would be necessary to keep Roberts from gossipping, and for that reason it was policy to discount the importance of his information.
From The Grell Mystery by Frank Froest
I had frequently seen the woman; and her name, as the rector and I were one evening gossipping over our tea, on some subject or other that I forget, came up.
From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 438 Volume 17, New Series, May 22, 1852 by Robert Chambers
The evenings of the Sabbath are passed in little gossipping circles in some of the cabins, or beneath the shade of some tree in front of their dwellings, or at weddings.
From The South-West By a Yankee. In Two Volumes. Volume 2 by Jonathon Holt Ingraham
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