mongering
Dealing in something
Mongering is the activity of trading, dealing, or spreading something, almost always with negative connotations.
It appears mainly in compounds: a warmonger promotes conflict, a fearmonger spreads alarm, a rumormonger traffics in gossip.
The older, neutral sense survives in words like fishmonger and cheesemonger, but standalone mongering nearly always implies peddling something harmful or disreputable: The campaign descended into pure fearmongering.
Wide distribution of information
- circulationMovement through a system
- proliferationRapid increase in quantity
- propagationAct of spreading widely
- peddlingSelling goods informally
trafficking · sowing · fomenting · stirring · stoking · inciting · fueling · broadcasting
Street fruit and vegetable seller
- whoremongerPatron of prostitutes
- hawkingSport using trained raptors
- peddlingSelling goods informally
- vendingSelling through machines
dealing · selling · merchandising · trading · bartering · wholesaling · retailing · shopkeeping
Informal talk spreading rumors
- scandalDisgraceful public affair
- whisperSpeech without full voice
- hearsayUnverified secondhand information
- innuendoOblique disparaging remark
tittle-tattle · slander · libel · backbiting · mudslinging · smear · buzz · speculation
Intentional deceptive falsehoods
- misinformationFalse data spread unintentionally
- spinRapid rotation around axis
- brainwashingCoercive psychological manipulation
- indoctrinationSystematic uncritical belief instillation
agitprop · manipulation · deception · distortion · demagoguery · sensationalism · yellow journalism · fabrication
dissemination
Wide distribution of information
- circulationMovement through a system
- proliferationRapid increase in quantity
- propagationAct of spreading widely
peddling · trafficking · sowing · fomenting · stirring · stoking · inciting · fueling · broadcasting · promoting
costermonger
Street fruit and vegetable seller
- whoremongerPatron of prostitutes
- hawkingSport using trained raptors
- peddlingSelling goods informally
vending · dealing · selling · merchandising · trading · bartering · wholesaling · retailing · shopkeeping · merchant
gossip
Informal talk spreading rumors
- scandalDisgraceful public affair
- whisperSpeech without full voice
- hearsayUnverified secondhand information
innuendo · tittle-tattle · slander · libel · backbiting · mudslinging · smear · buzz · speculation · conjecture
disinformation
Intentional deceptive falsehoods
- misinformationFalse data spread unintentionally
- spinRapid rotation around axis
- brainwashingCoercive psychological manipulation
indoctrination · agitprop · manipulation · deception · distortion · demagoguery · sensationalism · yellow journalism · fabrication · falsehood
scaremonger
One spreading exaggerated fears
terror · paranoia · anxiety · apprehension · phobia · threat · menace · foreboding · ominous · trepidation
mongeringobserving
Perceiving attentively
witnessing · watching · standing by · abstaining · refraining
mongeringsuppressing
Forcibly restraining or inhibiting
quelling · calming · defusing · de-escalating · peacemaking
mongeringtruth-telling
Communicating only facts
discretion · restraint · judiciousness · ethical journalism · transparency
- fear mongeringDeliberate spreading of exaggerated threats
- rumor mongeringSpreading unverified information
- disease mongeringPromoting dubious diagnoses for profit