tabloid
tabloid Lexical Profile
tabloid Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Relating to or characteristic of tabloid newspapers, especially in being sensationalist, lurid, or focused on celebrity gossip.
"The mayor refused to dignify the tabloid rumors with an official press statement."
• noun
A newspaper having pages half the size of those of a standard broadsheet, typically popular in style and dominated by bold headlines, photographs, and sensational stories.
"She flipped through a celebrity tabloid while waiting in line at the grocery store."
A compressed pill or small tablet of medicine (originally a registered trademark).
"The nineteenth-century physician prescribed a daily tabloid of quinine for the fever."
Word Nuance & Usage
While "tabloid" technically refers only to a compact newspaper size (as opposed to a larger "broadsheet"), in everyday usage it strongly connotes sensationalist, celebrity-driven journalism.
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in 1884 as a trademark by the London pharmaceutical company Burroughs, Wellcome & Co. for compressed medicinal tablets (blending "tablet" and "-oid"), the term was soon applied figuratively to anything compressed or condensed, including compact newspapers.