English Explanatory Dictionary

tell

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. Mental senses related to determining, reckoning, or perceiving
  2. To determine the number, amount, or value of [something].
  3. To notice, discern. (Roughly, "can tell" means "know" but with a sense of direct perception.)
  4. To pick up on a difference. (See tell apart for more.)
  5. Social senses of communicating
  6. To narrate, to recount.
  7. To convey by speech; to say.
  8. To instruct or inform.
  9. To order; to direct, to say to someone.
  10. To use (beads or similar objects) as an aid to prayer.
  11. To inform someone in authority about a wrongdoing.
  12. To reveal information in prose through outright expository statement — contrasted with show.
noun
  1. 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.
  2. A giveaway; something that unintentionally reveals or hints at a secret.
  3. That which is told; a tale or account.
  4. A private message to an individual in a chat room; a whisper.
noun
  1. A hill or mound, originally and especially in the Middle East, over or consisting of the ruins of ancient settlements.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

[tʰɔː] tĕl /tɛl/ [tʰɛl] [tʰɛɫ] LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tell.wav en-us-tell.ogg

Word forms

tell tells telling told telled no-table-tags glossary tellest toldest telleth

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. More at tale.

Synonyms

number apprise make known snitch tattle count reckon enumerate narrate recount relate advise tell on grass up disclose

Antonyms

ask

Related words

dead giveaway Tell el-Muqayyar

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 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

Translations

Bashkir: белеү Bashkir: күреү Bashkir: айырыу Bulgarian: различавам Catalan: conèixer Catalan: notar Catalan: adonar-se Chinese Mandarin: 看出 Danish: afsige Danish: afgøre Dutch: vertellen Dutch: zeggen Esperanto: distingi Finnish: sanoa French: se voir French: discerner German: unterscheiden German: erkennen German: sagen Greek: καταλαβαίνω Hebrew: הבין Hebrew: הבדיל Hungarian: megmond Italian: notare Japanese: 分かる Japanese: 判る Macedonian: разликува Norwegian Nynorsk: skjelna Old English: tōcnāwan Portuguese: dizer Portuguese: notar Russian: различа́ть Russian: различи́ть Russian: отлича́ть Russian: отличи́ть Slovak: povedať Spanish: darse cuenta Spanish: percatar Spanish: percatarse Spanish: notarse Swedish: säga Swedish: avgöra Ukrainian: відрізня́ти Ukrainian: відрізни́ти
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