Word.ws English Dictionary

hearsay

Syllables: hear·sayUK/ˈhɪəseɪ//ˈhɪɹˌseɪ/

hearsay noun: information that was heard by one person about another that cannot be adequately substantiated.

Noun

hearsay (usually uncountable, plural hearsays)

  1. (usually) Information that was heard by one person about another that cannot be adequately substantiated.
    • based on hearsay
    • The story turned out to be nothing but hearsay.
  2. (usually) Evidence based on the reports of others, which is normally inadmissible because it was not made under oath, rather than on personal knowledge.
    • dismiss hearsay
    • The judge ruled the testimony as mere hearsay.
  3. (usually) An out-of-court statement offered in court to prove the truth of the matter asserted (or the in-court testimony which recites such a statement), which is normally inadmissible (because it is not subject to cross-examination) unless it falls under one of a number of exceptions.

hearsay meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

hearsay in Tamil

அலர், கேள்வி, செவிவழிச் செய்தி, வதந்தி

hearsay in Urdu

افواہ, قول, شنید, شنیدہ, سنی سنائی بات

hearsay in Bengali

hearsay
শ্রুতি sruti

hearsay in Malayalam

ജനശ്രുതി, കേട്ടുകേൾവി, കിംവദന്തി
More languagesFewer languages
hearsay in Kannada
ಗಾಳಿಸಮಾಚಾರ, ಗಾಳಿಸುದ್ದಿ, ಹೇಳಿಕೇಳಿದ ಮಾತು, ಕೇಳಿಕೆ
hearsay in Tagalog
sabi-sabi, kuwentong-barbero
hearsay in Persian
شنیده šenide

Examples of hearsay in a sentence

  • The witness knitted together his testimony from contradictory pieces of hearsay.
  • These hearsay claims are intrinsically undocumentable.
  • The rationale for the rule excluding hearsay evidence—the unassessability of such evidence—also underlies Glithero J .'s ruling.

All 15 example sentences with hearsay

Synonyms of hearsay

Forms of hearsay

pluralhearsays

Origin of hearsay

From Middle English hyere-zigginge (1340), here sey (ca. 1438), from the phrase heren seien (“to hear [people] say”). Compare equally old Middle High German hœrsagen (14th c.), whence modern Hörensagen.

Words formed from hearsay

Questions about hearsay

What does hearsay mean?
Hearsay means information that was heard by one person about another that cannot be adequately substantiated.
What is hearsay in Tamil?
Hearsay in Tamil is அலர், கேள்வி, செவிவழிச் செய்தி. See Hearsay meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is hearsay?
Hearsay is a noun.
How do you pronounce hearsay?
Hearsay is pronounced /ˈhɪəseɪ/ (UK).
What is the plural of hearsay?
The plural of hearsay is hearsays.

Words near hearsay in the dictionary

  1. hears things
  2. hears through the grapevine
  3. hears voices
  4. hearsal
  5. hearsals
  6. hearsay
  7. hearsays
  8. hearse
  9. hearsecloth
  10. hearsecloths
  11. hearsed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hearsay (page history and authors); hearsay (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hearsay (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); শ্রুতি (Bengali) (page history and authors); hearsay (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hearsay (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-hearsay.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Ajshul-hearsay.wav.

Cite this entry: “hearsay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hearsay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.