English Explanatory Dictionary

Chinese whispers

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A game for several players in which a phrase, whispered by each person in turn to their neighbour, is often unwittingly misunderstood as it is transferred, to humorous effect by the time it reaches the last person and is compared with the original phrase.
  2. A situation where something is changed or misunderstood as a result of passing through successive people or processes.

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Chinese whispers.wav

Word forms

Chinese whispers

Synonyms

a whisper down the lane broken telephone operator pass it down Russian scandal telephone telephone game
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on C Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary