Word.ws English Dictionary

old wives' tale

US/ɔld ˈwaɪvz teɪl/

old wives' tale noun: a supposed truth that has been passed down by word of mouth.

Noun

old wives' tale (plural old wives' tales)

  1. A supposed truth that has been passed down by word of mouth
  2. A rumour, myth or superstition; something which is almost certainly untrue, despite acceptance by many.
    • According to the old wives' tales that are related about this race of genii who inhabit Iceland and its vicinity, they have a political form of government modelled after the same pattern as that which the inhabitants themselves are under.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 253
    Synonyms:
    anility

Synonyms of old wives' tale

Forms of old wives' tale

pluralold wives' tales

Origin of old wives' tale

In this context, the word “wives” means “women” and not “married women,” retaining the original sense of Old English wīf, which meant “woman” as well as “wife”. The phrase could be a reformation of Old English ealdra cwēna spell or a calque of Latin anīlis fābula, both literally “old women’s story.”

Questions about old wives' tale

What does old wives' tale mean?
Old wives' tale means a supposed truth that has been passed down by word of mouth.
What part of speech is old wives' tale?
Old wives' tale is a noun.
How do you pronounce old wives' tale?
Old wives' tale is pronounced /ɔld ˈwaɪvz teɪl/ (US).
What is the plural of old wives' tale?
The plural of old wives' tale is old wives' tales.

Words near old wives' tale in the dictionary

  1. Old Windsor
  2. old wine in a new bottle
  3. old wine in new bottles
  4. old wise tale
  5. old wives
  6. old wives' tale
  7. old wives' tales
  8. old wivish
  9. Old Woking
  10. Old Wolverton
  11. old woman

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: old wives' tale (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-old wives' tale.wav.

Cite this entry: “old wives' tale.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/old_wives%27_tale. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.