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View synonyms for tale

tale

[ teyl ]

noun

  1. a narrative that relates the details of some real or imaginary event, incident, or case; story:

    a tale about Lincoln's dog.

  2. a literary composition having the form of such a narrative.
  3. a falsehood; lie.
  4. a rumor or piece of gossip, often malicious or untrue.
  5. the full number or amount.
  6. Archaic. enumeration; count.
  7. Obsolete. talk; discourse.


tale

/ teɪl /

noun

  1. a report, narrative, or story
  2. one of a group of short stories connected by an overall narrative framework
    1. a malicious or meddlesome rumour or piece of gossip

      to bear tales against someone

    2. ( in combination )

      talebearer

      taleteller

  3. a fictitious or false statement
  4. tell tales
    1. to tell fanciful lies
    2. to report malicious stories, trivial complaints, etc, esp to someone in authority
  5. tell a tale
    to reveal something important
  6. tell its own tale
    to be self-evident
  7. archaic.
    1. a number; amount
    2. computation or enumeration
  8. an obsolete word for talk


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Word History and Origins

Origin of tale1

before 900; Middle English; Old English talu series, list, narrative, story; cognate with Dutch taal speech, language, German Zahl number, Old Norse tala number, speech. See tell 1

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Word History and Origins

Origin of tale1

Old English talu list; related to Old Frisian tele talk, Old Saxon, Old Norse tala talk, number, Old High German zala number

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Idioms and Phrases

see old wives' tale ; tall tale ; tell tales ; thereby hangs a tale .

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Example Sentences

As an example of good science-and-society policymaking, the history of fluoride may be more of a cautionary tale.

Not that the demonstration had anything to do with this couple, whom Sarah seems to see as a fairy tale come to life.

Were the fairy-tale true it really would shame the affluent west.

Whilst Whitacre never defined himself as an “ally,” this remains a cautionary tale of what not to do.

Urban America is often portrayed as a tale of two kinds of places, those that “have it” and those who do not.

But he was ignorant of that part of the horrid tale; and the Duke, in a milder voice, bade him rise.

Never had Punch secured the telling of that tale with so little opposition.

The tailor of the fairy tale with his "seven at a blow" is not in it with the gunnery Lieutenant of a battleship.

Until very recently little has been known of the strange land in which the subject of this tale lives.

That was how I learnt the strangest tale that ever a man was told, and knew the miracle to which I owed my life.

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

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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