urban legend
26
4.3
- noun
- /ˈɜrbən ˈlɛdʒənd/
- The tale of the murderous clown is an infamous urban legend that scares many children.
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Watch on YouTubeIt's like an old Asian, you know, urban legend that's real or something.
- It's like an old Asian, you know, urban legend that's real or something.
- And it's a long and storied urban legend.
- That's just a very common urban legend.
- OK, First of all, it's conflating many different urban legends.
- Oh, I said that everyone at the table is curious about this mythical sausage and wants to see with their own eyes if the urban legends are true.
- OK, so let's get into proper urban legends mode.
- That that's where like you can still get like urban legends, supernatural stuff, things like that.
- And we'll see you next time for some urban legends.
Examples
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The most famous thing associated with yellow yum yore is the urban legend that Twinkies "last forever."
Blog text (11) -
You're talking about an urban legend.
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- It's just an urban legend.
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I heard the following "urban legend" from three different women:
Academic text (2009) -
That whole pin thing is an urban legend, OK.
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Camp Blood is a ridiculous urban legend.
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I just saw someone spreading this urban legend on Facebook and asking others to do the same.
Blog text (25) -
I've heard that urban legend.
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One of the great urban legends is that humans are innately scared of spiders and snakes.
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There's a very charming urban legend about how the process of fixing flaws in software came to be known as debugging.
Synonyms
853
1.2
A story or piece of news that people pass on but may not be true
439
3.9
An old story about the past that may include magic or gods
395
3.8
A false idea that many people believe
A false story people spread by talking
Rumors people tell that are not proven true
Antonyms
How Believable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is partly predictable: a B1 learner who knows 'urban' (city-related) and 'legend' (a traditional or famous story) can infer it refers to a kind of city-related story. However, the specialized sense — a modern, widely circulated tale often of questionable truth or urban folklore — is a pragmatic/genre-level meaning not fully derivable from the parts (even though many languages use a cognate term), so full comprehension usually requires prior exposure.
Etymology
Urban legend may come from the image of people in a city telling a dramatic story, where urban means 'city' and legend means 'old story' that sounds real but may have begun as a rumor. So, an urban legend is a widely told story that many people think is 'true' even when it is not.