There is no smoke without fire. (15th century, Citatboken)
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A rumor or suspicion usually has some basis in fact
Literally: smoke implies a fire
Examples
The company denies all allegations, but there is no smoke without fire
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “There is no smoke without fire. (15th century, Citatboken)” mean?
A rumor or suspicion usually has some basis in fact Literally: smoke implies a fire
Is “There is no smoke without fire. (15th century, Citatboken)” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.