spread the word

English

Verb

spread the word (third-person singular simple present spreads the word, present participle spreading the word, simple past and past participle spread the word)

1. (idiomatic) To tell a lot of people; to inform as many people as one can.

   Coordinate terms: preach, campaign, pass on

   • 2006, Oded Maimon, Lior Rokach, Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Handbook, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 424:

     A famous example of viral marketing is the rapid spread of Hotmail as a free email service. Attached to each email was a short advertisement and Hotmail's URL, and customers spread the word about Hotmail simply by emailing their family and friends.

Translations

tell a lot of people

• Finnish: levittää sanaa
• French: passer le mot (fr)
• German: weitersagen (de), weiterverbreiten (de)

References

• “spread the word”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “spread the word”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “spread the word gospel message” (US) / “spread the word gospel message” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.