View synonyms for show and tell

show and tell

noun

an activity for young children, especially in school, in which each participant produces an object of unusual interest and tells something about it.
Facetious. any informative presentation or demonstration, as to introduce a new product or divulge and explain a special plan.

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Other Words From

show-and-tell adjective
show-and-teller noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of show and tell¹

First recorded in 1950–55

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Idioms and Phrases

A public presentation or display, as in It was a terrible bore, what with their show and tell of every last detail about their trip around the world . This expression originated in the 1940s to describe a learning exercise for young children, in which each child in a group brings some object to show the others and talks about it.

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Example Sentences

My Cold War childhood was like an unending session of Soviet show-and-tell.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Showa show bag

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