tell
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: authorship
broadcasting
communications
film
journalism
literature
media
publishing
television
writing
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, *talō (“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, Swedish tala (“to speak”). More at tale.
Inflected forms:
form: tells
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: telling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: told
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: told
pos: verb
tags: past
form: telled
pos: verb
tags: dialectal
participle
past
form: telled
pos: verb
tags: dialectal
past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: tell
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: tell
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: told
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: tell
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: tellest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: told
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: toldest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: tells
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: telleth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: told
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: tell
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: told
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: tell
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: told
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: tell
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: telling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: told
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: tells
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Mental senses related to determining, reckoning, or perceiving
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: All told, there were over a dozen.  Can you tell time on a clock?  He had untold wealth.
And in his lap a masse of coyne he told,
 And turned vpsidowne, to feede his eye
 A couetous desire with his huge threasury.
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.
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.
gloss: Mental senses related to determining, reckoning, or perceiving
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
transitive
examples: I can tell that you're thrilled.
You can tell you've struck a nerve when even the crowd stops laughing.
She couldn't tell the words on the chalkboard without her glasses.
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.
gloss: Mental senses related to determining, reckoning, or perceiving
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
transitive
examples: An expert can tell an original from a forgery.
Can you tell whether those flowers are real or silk, from this distance?  No, there's no way to tell.
Whether she loves me or loves me not / Sometimes it's hard to tell
gloss: Social senses of communicating
pos: verb
tags: ditransitive
transitive
examples: I want to tell a story;  I want to tell you a story.
“[…]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.”
gloss: Social senses of communicating
pos: verb
tags: ditransitive
transitive
examples: Finally, someone told him the truth.  He seems to like to tell lies.
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.
Tell her you’re here.
gloss: Social senses of communicating
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Please tell me how to do it.
Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
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.
gloss: Social senses of communicating
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Tell him to go away.
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.
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.
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.
gloss: Social senses of communicating
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: Social senses of communicating
pos: verb
tags: childish
intransitive
examples: I saw you steal those sweets! I'm telling!
gloss: Social senses of communicating
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Maria rewrote the section of her novel that talked about Meg and Sage's friendship to have less telling and more showing.
gloss: Abstract senses related to showing or revealing
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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.
gloss: Abstract senses related to showing or revealing
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Time will tell what became of him.
gloss: Abstract senses related to showing or revealing
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Sir Gerald was moving slower; his wounds were beginning to tell.
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.
[...] 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.
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.
gloss: A reflexive, often habitual behavior, especially one occurring in a context that often features attempts at deception by persons under psychological stress (such as a poker game or police interrogation), that reveals information that the person exhibiting the behavior is attempting to withhold.
pos: noun
gloss: A giveaway; something that unintentionally reveals or hints at a secret.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: Those whose business it is to verify luxury bags insist, at least publicly, that there’s always a “tell” to a superfake.
Republican Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey said recently that “Israel is the only state in the world whose fundamental right to exist, within any borders at all, is openly denied by other states.” But Israel is the only nation with a “right to exist,” as the phrase is not commonly attached to any other country. And that’s the tell: This is not a legal concept, but a political one, available for broad interpretation and rhetorical weaponization.
gloss: That which is told; a tale or account.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: April 4, 1743, Horace Walpole, letter to Sir Horace Mann
I am at the end of my tell.
gloss: A private message to an individual in a chat room; a whisper.
pos: noun
tags: Internet
Synonyms: number
apprise
make known
snitch
tattle
Antonyms: ask
Related words: dead giveaway
Derived words: a little bird told me
all told
as far as one can tell
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 in the wind and tell me it's raining
don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining
don't piss in the wind 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
outtell
overtell
pentel
piss on someone's leg and tell them it's raining
pray tell
pretell
retell
show-and-tell
show and tell
show, don't tell
show don't tell
tattle tell
tellable
tell against
tell-all
tell all
tell apart
tell a story
tellee
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
telly
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
voluntell
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
Translations:
lang: Bashkir
word: белеү
roman: belew
lang: Bashkir
word: күреү
roman: kürew
lang: Bashkir
word: айырыу
roman: ayırıw
lang: Bulgarian
word: различавам
roman: različavam
lang: Catalan
word: conèixer
lang: Catalan
word: notar
lang: Catalan
word: adonar-se
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 看出
roman: kànchū
lang: Danish
word: afsige
lang: Danish
word: afgøre
lang: Dutch
word: vertellen
lang: Dutch
word: zeggen
lang: Esperanto
word: distingi
lang: Finnish
word: sanoa
lang: French
word: se voir
lang: French
word: discerner
lang: German
word: unterscheiden
lang: German
word: erkennen
lang: German
word: sagen
lang: Greek
word: καταλαβαίνω
roman: katalavaíno
lang: Hebrew
word: הבין
roman: hevín
lang: Hebrew
word: הבדיל
roman: hivdíl
lang: Hungarian
word: megmond
lang: Italian
word: notare
lang: Japanese
word: 分かる
roman: wakaru
lang: Japanese
word: 判る
roman: wakaru
lang: Macedonian
word: разликува
roman: razlikuva
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: skjelna
lang: Old English
word: tōcnāwan
lang: Portuguese
word: dizer
lang: Portuguese
word: notar
lang: Russian
word: различа́ть
roman: različátʹ
lang: Russian
word: различи́ть
roman: različítʹ
lang: Russian
word: отлича́ть
roman: otličátʹ
lang: Russian
word: отличи́ть
roman: otličítʹ
lang: Slovak
word: povedať
lang: Spanish
word: darse cuenta
lang: Spanish
word: percatar
lang: Spanish
word: percatarse
lang: Spanish
word: notarse
lang: Swedish
word: säga
lang: Swedish
word: avgöra
lang: Ukrainian
word: відрізня́ти
roman: vidriznjáty
lang: Ukrainian
word: відрізни́ти
roman: vidriznýty