urban legend
nounDefinition of urban legend
: 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
Second, contrary to urban legend sports franchises like to perpetuate, subsidies to pro teams are financial losers for communities. — Mercury News & East Bay Times Editorial Boards, The Mercury News, "Editorial: Oakland A’s shouldn’t get sweetheart Coliseum deal," 13 Aug. 2019 However, since the assassination was carried out in private and the remains’ location kept secret, urban legends spewed. — Elena Nicolaou, refinery29.com, "The Dramatic True Story Of Russia's Last Dynasty, The Romanovs," 5 July 2019 Everything that's happened since is almost like an NBA urban legend. — Andrew Sharp, SI.com, "NBA Free Agency Report Card: Grading the Nets, Knicks, 76ers and More from a Crazy Day 1," 1 July 2019 But the new sensation also led quickly to wild urban legends. — Emily Matchar, Smithsonian, "The Scientist Behind Some of Our Favorite Junk Foods," 20 July 2019 The funny thing about it is that, like an urban legend, there are certain details everyone remembers and others that vary from eater to eater. — Los Angeles Times, "Jonathan Gold’s fried chicken," 18 July 2019 Alligators in the sewers have been an urban legend since my great-grandmother took the train to Ft. — Randy Blaser, chicagotribune.com, "Column: To catch a gator, ‘Swamp People’ style," 13 July 2019 The entire home run derby jinx is urban legend, with no facts to back it up. — Houston Mitchell, latimes.com, "Dodgers Dugout: Joc Pederson and the home run derby myth," 9 July 2019 The urban legend about how it was drawn to be a town without churches is true. — David Debolt, The Mercury News, "How Bruce Lee, a bus called ‘Aunt Clara,’ and 500 gallons of patrol car booze have a place in East Bay history," 23 June 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'urban legend.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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