word of mouth
/ˌwɜːd əv ˈmaʊθ/NEUTRAL · B2
Meaning
news passed on by people telling each other
Examples
- 1The café doesn't advertise; all its customers come by word of mouth.
- 2We found our cleaner through word of mouth – a neighbour recommended her.
- 3News of the job travelled by word of mouth, so it never appeared online.
- 4Most of our new students hear about the school through word of mouth.
- 5Is word of mouth still the best way for a small bakery to find new customers?
Grammar
Usually after by or through. Before a noun it takes hyphens: word-of-mouth.
More idioms about communication
All 20 idioms and the topic quiz →to cut a long story shortused to give only the main point of what happenedall earslistening eagerly and with full attentionhear something on the grapevineto learn news that people pass on informallyput in a good word forto praise someone to a person who can help themget a word in edgewaysto manage to speak while someone else keeps talkingfall on deaf earsto be ignored by the people who are told it
English Idioms400 idioms in 20 topics — with reviews that keep them from fading
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