old wives' tale

O o

Definitions of old wives' tale words

noun old wives' tale a traditional belief, story, or idea that is often of a superstitious nature. 1
noun old wives' tale superstition, myth 1
countable noun old wives' tale An old wives' tale is a traditional belief, especially one which is incorrect. 0
noun old wives' tale a belief, usually superstitious or erroneous, passed on by word of mouth as a piece of traditional wisdom 0
noun old wives' tale a silly story or superstitious belief 0

before 1670

One of the 47% oldest English words

First recorded in 1670-80

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

This term is known only to a narrow circle of people with rare knowledge. Only 29% of English native speakers know the meaning of this word.

According to our data most of word are more popular. This word is almost not used. It has a much more popular synonym.

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