WORD OF MOUTH

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does word of mouth mean? 

• WORD OF MOUTH (noun)
  The noun WORD OF MOUTH has 1 sense:

1. gossip spread by spoken communication

  Familiarity information: WORD OF MOUTH used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WORD OF MOUTH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Gossip spread by spoken communication

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

grapevine; pipeline; word of mouth

Context example:

the news of their affair was spread by word of mouth

Hypernyms ("word of mouth" is a kind of...):

comment; gossip; scuttlebutt (a report (often malicious) about the behavior of other people)

 Context examples 

The man who wrote it could not have taken it; otherwise, of course, he might have delivered his own message by word of mouth.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

These gods also made overtures to White Fang, but he warned them off with a snarl, and the master did likewise with word of mouth.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He had nothing to urge against it, but still resisted the idea of a letter of proper submission; and therefore, to make it easier to him, as he declared a much greater willingness to make mean concessions by word of mouth than on paper, it was resolved that, instead of writing to Fanny, he should go to London, and personally intreat her good offices in his favour.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Elinor had just been congratulating herself, in the midst of her perplexity, that however difficult it might be to express herself properly by letter, it was at least preferable to giving the information by word of mouth, when her visitor entered, to force her upon this greatest exertion of all.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)