谣言

• Pinyin: yáo yán
• Hanzi breakdown: 谣 = 讠(speech) + 䍃 (phonetic — a vessel being shaken; unsteady, unverified); 言 = 辛 (sharp instrument) + 口 (mouth — originally a sworn statement, later simply speech)

Meaning

Rumour; false rumour; unfounded claim spread among people, often causing alarm or misinformation.

Distinct from 流言 (gossip, generally less harmful) in that 谣言 specifically implies falsehood and potential social harm. Common expressions: 散布谣言 (to spread rumours), 辟谣 (to refute a rumour; to clarify misinformation), 谣言止于智者 (rumours stop with wise people — a proverb), 网络谣言 (online rumours). Highly relevant in the era of social media.

Examples

1. 疫情初期，社交媒体上出现了大量关于病毒来源和传播途径的谣言，卫生部门不得不多次发布官方声明予以辟谣。 In the early days of the outbreak, social media was flooded with rumors about where the virus came from and how it spread, and health authorities had to issue official statements again and again to debunk them.
2. 他的公司遭遇了一场精心策划的商业诋毁，大量关于产品质量的谣言在竞争对手的暗中操控下迅速蔓延扩散。 His company was hit by a carefully planned smear campaign. Under competitors’ behind-the-scenes manipulation, rumors about product quality quickly spread far and wide.
3. 古语有云，谣言止于智者，面对网络上铺天盖地的不实信息，保持理性分辨、不轻易转发是每个负责任的公民应有的态度。 As the saying goes, rumors stop with the wise. Faced with the overwhelming flood of false information online, staying rational, judging carefully, and not reposting lightly is the attitude every responsible citizen should have.

Usage Guide

Context: media, society, politics, crisis communication

Tone: negative

Do Say

• 在信息高度碎片化的社交媒体时代，谣言的传播速度往往远远超过辟谣的速度，这给政府的危机公关和公众的信息甄别能力都带来了极大的挑战。(In the era of highly fragmented social media, rumours tend to spread far faster than clarifications can catch up — this poses enormous challenges both to government crisis communication and to the public's ability to discern reliable information.)
• 该企业股价异常波动后，官方立即召开新闻发布会，就市场上流传的关于重大财务损失的谣言逐一进行了澄清和辟谣。(After abnormal fluctuations in the company's share price, officials immediately held a press conference to address and refute, one by one, the rumours circulating in the market about significant financial losses.)

Don't Say

• 他在散布谣言关于我 — the natural word order in Chinese is 他在散布关于我的谣言; modifier clauses with 关于 must precede the noun they modify; placing 关于 after the verb object breaks standard syntax

Origin & History

谣 = 讠(speech radical) + 䍃 (originally depicting a container being shaken — unsteady, unstable speech; hence an unfounded or shaky claim) + 言 (speech/words)

Cultural Context

Era: Classical/Modern

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal