Tidings are news or information, especially about something important that has happened. When someone brings tidings, they're delivering a message or report about events.

The word appears most often in older literature and traditional phrases, particularly “glad tidings” or “good tidings,” which mean happy or welcome news. You've probably heard the Christmas carol that begins “God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day, to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray, O tidings of comfort and joy.” Here, tidings refers to the joyful news of Jesus's birth.

In medieval times, before phones or the internet, people depended on travelers and messengers to carry tidings from distant places. A knight might return home with tidings of victory in battle, or a merchant might bring tidings of what was happening in faraway cities. Tidings could be good or bad: a messenger might arrive with tragic tidings of a natural disaster, or with welcome tidings of a friend's safe arrival.

Today we rarely use tidings in casual conversation, but you'll encounter it in classic books, poems, and holiday songs. When you do see it, it usually carries a sense of importance or formality, suggesting news that matters.