urban legend

noun

: an often lurid story or anecdote that is based on hearsay and widely circulated as true
the urban legend of alligators living in the sewers

called also urban myth

Examples of urban legend in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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This tension over competing visions of womanhood fueled the kinds of collective anxieties that manifest in modern folklore and urban legends. Elizabeth Friend, Longreads, 29 Oct. 2024 The quartet of episodes released for the third mini-season ended with a banger, another blending of a classic urban legend with a modern issue. Brian Tallerico, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2024 Blaming immigrants for eating pets was an American urban legend years before Donald Trump spread the rumor about Haitians in Ohio. Stuart Anderson, Forbes, 15 Sep. 2024 Graduate student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) summons the urban legend boogeyman known as Candyman (Tony Todd) into existence, unleashing a torrent of pain and death against the backdrop of urban decay in a Chicago housing project. Meagan Navarro, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for urban legend 

Word History

First Known Use

1968, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of urban legend was in 1968

Dictionary Entries Near urban legend

Cite this Entry

“Urban legend.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/urban%20legend. Accessed 15 Dec. 2024.

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