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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

bruit.

Hearsay, rumour; talk; (countable) an instance of this.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/bɹuːt/Received-Pronunciation/bɹut/General-American/bɾɪu̯t/Wales/bɾʉt/Scotland
  1. Hearsay, rumour; talk; (countable) an instance of this.

    archaic · uncountable
  2. A clamour, an outcry; a noise.

    countable · obsolete
Where this word comes from

The noun is derived from Middle English bruit (“commotion, tumult; fame, renown; collective noun for a group of barons”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman brut (“commotion, tumult; noise, sounds; fame, renown; hearsay, rumour; collective noun for a group of barons”) and Old French bruit (“commotion, tumult; noise, sounds; fame, renown; hearsay, rumour”) (modern French bruit (“noise; report, rumour”)), a noun use of the past participle of bruire (“to make a noise; to rattle; to roar; to rustle”), from Late Latin brugere, an alteration of Latin rugīre (“to roar”) (the present active infinitive of rugiō (“to bray; to bellow, roar; to rumble”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewg- (“to belch; to roar”)), possibly influenced by Late Latin bragere (“to bray”). The English word is cognate with Catalan brogir (“to roar”); Old Occitan bruir, brugir (“to roar”). The verb is derived from the noun.

verb/bɹuːt/Received-Pronunciation/bɹut/General-American/bɾɪu̯t/Wales/bɾʉt/Scotland
  1. To disseminate, promulgate, or spread news, a rumour, etc.

    archaic · transitive
Where this word comes from

The noun is derived from Middle English bruit (“commotion, tumult; fame, renown; collective noun for a group of barons”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman brut (“commotion, tumult; noise, sounds; fame, renown; hearsay, rumour; collective noun for a group of barons”) and Old French bruit (“commotion, tumult; noise, sounds; fame, renown; hearsay, rumour”) (modern French bruit (“noise; report, rumour”)), a noun use of the past participle of bruire (“to make a noise; to rattle; to roar; to rustle”), from Late Latin brugere, an alteration of Latin rugīre (“to roar”) (the present active infinitive of rugiō (“to bray; to bellow, roar; to rumble”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewg- (“to belch; to roar”)), possibly influenced by Late Latin bragere (“to bray”). The English word is cognate with Catalan brogir (“to roar”); Old Occitan bruir, brugir (“to roar”). The verb is derived from the noun.

noun/ˈbɹuːi/Received-Pronunciation/bɹuːˈiː/Received-Pronunciation/bɹuːt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɹui/General-American
  1. An abnormal sound in the body heard on auscultation (for example, through using a stethoscope); a murmur.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French bruit (“noise; report, rumour”), from Old French bruit (“noise; sounds”); see further at etymology 1.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.