1
as in gossiper
a person who habitually reveals personal or sensational facts about others statehouse talebearers had long spread stories about the governor's extramarital affairs

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2
as in informant
a person who provides information about another's wrongdoing the teacher told him not to be such a talebearer, as she was quite capable of detecting student misbehavior on her own

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for talebearer
Noun
  • He had been suspended for flouting weight regulations, stripped of his informants and demoted to monitoring wiretaps.
    Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times, 23 Apr. 2025
  • His lawyers and family deny any gang connections and say the allegations are largely based on information from a 2019 informant.
    Nicholas Creel, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors The Diablo series is one of the most prolific and influential video games series in history, with the first game in the series having almost single handedly pioneered the modern dungeon crawler RPG genre.
    Josh Hammer, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 Apr. 2025
  • Get into the habit of putting empathy before gossip.
    Jenna Ryu, SELF, 21 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • Singh says that the Kashmir policy of India's Hindu nationalist government has alienated residents of Kashmir, and cost the Indian army its vital network of local informers.
    Omkar Khandekar, NPR, 23 Apr. 2025
  • The book’s cast of characters is immense, including spies and informers, dubious bankers, Mafiosos, terrorists, radical priests who support the poor, and conservatives who back right-wing dictators.
    Foreign Affairs, Foreign Affairs, 22 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • But Sysco’s revised forecast could be the canary in the kitchen.
    Catherine Baab, Quartz, 29 Apr. 2025
  • America’s small businesses could be the canaries in the coal mine.
    Alicia Wallace, CNN Money, 20 Apr. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Talebearer.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/talebearer. Accessed 4 May. 2025.

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