legend
Americannoun
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legends
plural
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a nonhistorical or unverifiable story handed down by tradition from earlier times and popularly accepted as historical.
- Antonyms:
- fact
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the body of stories of this kind, especially as they relate to a particular people, group, or clan.
the winning of the West in American legend.
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an inscription, especially on a coat of arms, on a monument, under a picture, or the like.
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a table on a map, chart, or the like, listing and explaining the symbols used.
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Numismatics. inscription.
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a collection of stories about an admirable person.
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a person who is the center of such stories.
She became a legend in her own lifetime.
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Archaic. a story of the life of a saint, especially one stressing the miraculous or unrecorded deeds of the saint.
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Obsolete. a collection of such stories or stories like them.
noun
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a popular story handed down from earlier times whose truth has not been ascertained
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a group of such stories
the Arthurian legend
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a modern story that has taken on the characteristics of a traditional legendary tale
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a person whose fame or notoriety makes him a source of exaggerated or romanticized tales or exploits
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an inscription or title, as on a coin or beneath a coat of arms
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explanatory matter accompanying a table, map, chart, etc
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a story of the life of a saint
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a collection of such stories
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Synonym Usage
Legend, fable, myth refer to fictitious stories, usually handed down by tradition (although some fables are modern). Legend, originally denoting a story concerning the life of a saint, is applied to any fictitious story, sometimes involving the supernatural, and usually concerned with a real person, place, or other subject: the legend of the Holy Grail. A fable is specifically a fictitious story (often with animals or inanimate things as speakers or actors) designed to teach a moral: a fable about industrious bees. A myth is one of a class of stories, usually concerning gods, semidivine heroes, etc., current since primitive times, the purpose of which is to attempt to explain some belief or natural phenomenon: the Greek myth about Demeter.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of legend
First recorded in 1300–50; 1900–05 legend for def. 4; Middle English legende “written account of a saint's life,” from Medieval Latin legenda literally, “(lesson) to be read,” noun use of feminine of Latin legendus, gerund of legere “to read”; so called because appointed to be read on respective saints' days
Explanation
A legend is a larger-than-life story that gets passed down from one generation to the next — like the legends of Beowulf, Robin Hood, or even Big Foot. Legend comes from the Latin legere, "to read." The Latin word was originally limited to written stories, but in English, legend lost that limitation. Often a legend lives on in the stories that people tell each other. A person can be a legend, too. Anne Frank is a legend for keeping a diary of hidden life in war time, and a less famous person, like a long-serving local teacher, can be a legend to neighborhood kids.
Vocabulary lists containing legend
Beowulf vocabulary
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Reading: Informational - Middle School
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Academy Awards, List 5
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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:
The late Lakers legend created a film-analysis series called “Detail,” which was designed to show the public how a professional basketball player studies game tape.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
Vampires are, according to legend, more known to inspire terror than laughs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
The 55-year-old magician spent decades performing a trick once dismissed as legend, and still keeps photographs and newspaper clippings from his years of international fame.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
In this masterpiece of Japanese painting, Shōhaku visualizes his version of an old Chinese legend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
She told it to me like a legend or a myth.
From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller
"I think he is one of the great legends in tech and business," says Alex Karp, CEO of data-analytics specialist Palantir.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
Here we see the real history butting up against the expected fantasy of Norse legends, warriors and gods.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
Around half of the 6,000-or-so crowd members who showed up by 6 p.m. for the three-band bill, headlined by heavy metal legends Iron Maiden, raise their hands.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
That season soon had many fans wondering whether the expectations for Manning—the nephew of NFL legends Peyton and Eli and grandson of College Football Hall of Famer Archie Manning—amounted to nothing more than empty hype.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
On top of that, they had heard many legends about the horse Arion, and they were amazed that Hazel had befriended him.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
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.
