■ word

不带任何冠词的 word，表示“消息”、“信息”。

• What word is there of the negotiations?有什么关于谈判的消息吗？
• There is still no word of survivors.还没有生还者的消息。
• She sent word to us that she would be delayed.她送消息给我们，说她可能晚到。
• I don't know how to get word to him.我不知道如何把话传给他。
• She left word with her secretary that...她在她秘书那里留下了话，说…
• They received word their son was shipped from the war zone in Iraq to a base in Germany. (The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, New York, Dec. 26, 2006, A8)他们接到消息说，他们的儿子从伊拉克战区登机到了位于德国的一个基地。
• Word has it that...据说…
• Word emerged from Asian retailing sources last week that Wal-Mart is more than doubling its presence in China... (Newsweek, Oct. 30, 2006, p.50)上周从亚洲零售业人士那里传出消息，说沃尔玛正在把在华经营规模扩大一倍以上…

Word 前面没有定冠词，就需要后面补充说明其内容。如果内容前面已经交代过，后面出现 word 时，就要说 the word，例如：

• Apparently the word was out.(Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, p.449)显然走漏了（有关前面说过的某事的）风声。