tell
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: [tʰɔː]
enpr: tĕl
ipa: /tɛl/
ipa: [tʰɛl]
ipa: [tʰɛɫ]
rhymes: -ɛl
Forms: form: tells
form: telling
form: told
form: told
form: telled
form: telled
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: tell
form: tell
form: told
form: tell
form: tellest
form: told
form: toldest
form: tells
form: telleth
form: told
form: tell
form: told
form: tell
form: told
form: tell
form: -
form: telling
form: told
Etymology: From Middle English tellen (“to count, tell”), from Old English tellan (“to count, tell”), from Proto-West Germanic *talljan, from Proto-Germanic *taljaną, *talzijaną (“to count, enumerate”), from Proto-Germanic *talą, *talǭ (“number, counting”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol- (“calculation, fraud”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian tälle (“to say; tell”), West Frisian telle (“to count”), West Frisian fertelle (“to tell, narrate”), Dutch tellen (“to count”) and Dutch vertellen (“to tell”), Low German tellen (“to count”), German zählen, Faroese telja. More at tale.
Senses: examples: text: All told, there were over a dozen.  Can you tell time on a clock?  He had untold wealth.
text: And in his lap a masse of coyne he told,
 And turned vpsidowne, to feede his eye
 A couetous desire with his huge threasury.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: Well fare the Arabians, who so richly pay
The things they traffic for with wedge of gold,
Whereof a man may easily in a day
Tell that which may maintain him all his life.
ref: c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act I:
text: Only He who made them can tell the number of the stars, and mark the place of each in the order of the one great dominant spiral.
ref: 1875, Hugh MacMillan, The Sunday Magazine:
qualifier: archaic outside of idioms
glosses: To count, reckon, or enumerate.
examples: text: I want to tell a story;  I want to tell you a story.
text: “[…]Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. Oh, dear, there's so much to tell you, so many warnings to give you, but all that must be postponed for the moment.”
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To narrate, to recount.
examples: text: Finally, someone told him the truth.  He seems to like to tell lies.
text: I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: Tell her you’re here.
ref: 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
glosses: To convey by speech; to say.
examples: text: Please tell me how to do it.
text: Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis xii:18:
text: But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,[…]. We began to tell her about Mohair and the cotillon, and of our point of observation from the Florentine galleried porch, and she insisted she would join us there.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: To instruct or inform.
examples: text: Tell him to go away.
text: She said she hoped she had not distressed him by the course she had felt obliged to take, and he told her not to be a fool.
ref: 1909, H. G. Wells, Ann Veronica:
text: Stability was restored, but once the re-entry propulsion was activated, the crew was told to prepare to come home before the end of their only day in orbit.
ref: 2012 October 25, John Noble Wilford, “Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon, Dies at 82”, in New York Times:
text: The driver remained at his post, while telling fireman Jim Nightall to get down on the track and run back to uncouple the burning wagon from the rest.
ref: 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948:
glosses: To order; to direct, to say to someone.
examples: text: Can you tell whether those flowers are real or silk, from this distance?  No, there's no way to tell.
text: I can tell you're upset.
text: An expert can tell an original from a forgery.
text: Whether she loves me or loves me not / Sometimes it's hard to tell
ref: 1892 Harry Dacre, "Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)"
text: Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To discern, notice, identify or distinguish.
examples: text: Time will tell what became of him.
glosses: To reveal.
examples: text: Cherry looks old, Mergenthaler told himself. His age is telling. Querulous — that's the word. He's become a whining, querulous old man absorbed with trivialities.
ref: 1990, Stephen Coonts, Under Siege, 1991 Pocket Books edition, p.409
glosses: To be revealed.
examples: text: Sir Gerald was moving slower; his wounds were beginning to tell.
text: Opinion ought [… to give] merited honour to every one, whatever opinion he may hold[…]keeping nothing back which tells, or can be supposed to tell, in their favour.
ref: 1859, John Stuart Mill, On Liberty:
text: [...] the 4 miles at 1 in 180 up to Sanquhar were mounted with no greater fall in speed than from 65 to 59 m.p.h., after which, possibly as a result of easing the engine or because the strain on steam supply was beginning to tell, the final 3½ miles up at 1 in 200 up to milepost 59½ were surmounted at a minimum of 49½ m.p.h.
ref: 1960 April, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 212:
text: But England's superior fitness told in the second half, with Delon Armitage, Manu Tuilagi and Chris Ashton (two) going over for tries to secure a bonus-point win.
ref: 2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To have an effect, especially a noticeable one; to be apparent, to be demonstrated.
glosses: To use (beads or similar objects) as an aid to prayer.
examples: text: I saw you steal those sweets! I'm telling!
synonyms: tell on
glosses: To inform someone in authority about a wrongdoing.
examples: text: Maria rewrote the section of her novel that talked about Meg and Sage's friendship to have less telling and more showing.
topics: authorship
broadcasting
communications
film
journalism
literature
media
publishing
television
writing
glosses: To reveal information in prose through outright expository statement — contrasted with show.
Synonyms: sense: enumerate
word: count
word: number
word: count
sense: narrate
word: narrate
sense: narrate
word: recount
sense: narrate
word: relate
sense: to instruct or inform
word: advise
word: apprise
sense: reveal
word: disclose
word: make known
sense: inform someone in authority
word: grass up
word: snitch
word: tattle
Derived terms: a little bird told me
all told
betell
can you tell us
dead men can tell no tales
dead men tell no tales
does Macy's tell Gimbel's
don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining
don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining
don't tell me
do tell
foretell
forthtell
fortune-tell
go tell your mother she wants you
hear tell
hiss-and-tell
I can tell you
I'll tell you
I'll tell you what
I'm not telling you
I'm telling a lie
I tell a lie
I'm telling you
I tell you
I tell you what
keep telling yourself that
kiss-and-tell
kiss and tell
let me tell you
live to tell the tale
mistell
no-tell hotel
no-tell motel
now you tell me
only time will tell
piss on someone's leg and tell them it's raining
pray tell
show-and-tell
show and tell
show, don't tell
show don't tell
tattle tell
tell against
tell-all
tell all
tell apart
tell a story
teller
tell fortunes
telling
tell it like it is
tell its own story
tell its own tale
tell it to Sweeney
tell it to the hand
tell it to the judge
tell it to the marines
tell me about it
tell me another one
tell me something I don't know
tell noses
tell of
tell off
tell on
tell someone where to get off
tell someone where to shove it
tell story
tell-a-story
tell-tale compass
tell tales
tell tales out of school
telltale
tell-tale
tell-tale-tit
tell the difference
tell the time
tell the truth
tell-troth
tell-truth
tell us another
tell us another one
tell volumes
tell-worthy
tell you the truth
tell you what
time alone will tell
time will tell
to tell the truth
to tell you the truth
truth to tell
untell
what can I tell you
what did I tell you
who are you telling
you can't tell a book by its cover
you're telling me
you tell me