the stuff of legend

idiomatic phrase

variants or less commonly the stuff of legends

1

: someone or something that is told about in legend

Dragons are still the stuff of legend. But in Slovenia, a bizarre, cave-dwelling … salamander serves as a worthy, real-life stand-in.

—Olivia Lowenberg

2

: someone or something that is very famous or memorable

Earlier that summer, Saito faced off with Tanaka in Japan's national high school championships, which are at least the equivalent of March Madness in the United States. Their battles were the stuff of legend, but Saito's team won and he struck out Tanaka for the final out of the deciding game.

—Anthony Rieber

For those of us who ran around in it, the blizzard of '78 was the stuff of legend, an unrelenting force of nature that smacked Boston upside the head for about a week.

—Bob Flaherty

The contest between ruling authorities and peasants over whether or not martyrs would be commemorated could itself become the stuff of legends.

—Anne Walthall

Examples of the stuff of legend in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Saturday Night Live is no stranger to mythologizing, and no episode has been as elevated to the stuff of legend as the late-night sketch comedy series’ inaugural showing. —Natalie Oganesyan, Deadline, 15 Feb. 2025

But then there’s The Heist: the largest and still-unsolved art theft that went down in the wee hours of March 18, 1990 is the stuff of legend – and documentaries. —Moira McCarthy, Boston Herald, 26 Dec. 2024

As for its racing debut at Le Mans in 1959, the story is still the stuff of legend. —Howard Walker, Robb Report, 20 Jan. 2025

The rest was the stuff of legends, madness in December. —Ben Bolch, Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1919, in the meaning defined at sense 1