tell
Noun · VerbOpen English WordNet
Verb (8)told, tells, telling
- express in words“He said that he wanted to marry her”“tell me what is bothering you”“state your opinion”“state your name”Synonyms: statesayMore general express, verbalizeMore specific answer, note, give, add, declare, present, announce, explain, get out, precede +4 moreSimilar say
- let something be known“Tell them that you will be late”More general informMore specific bespeak, unwrap, repeat, impart, spill, publicize, announce, digress, propagandize
- narrate or give a detailed account of“Tell what happened”“The father told a story to his child”Synonyms: narraterecountreciteMore general informMore specific relate, crack, yarn, rhapsodize
- give instructions to or direct somebody to do something with authority“I said to him to go home”“She ordered him to do the shopping”“The mother told the child to get dressed”Synonyms: orderenjoinsayMore general requestMore specific call, command, direct, instruct, warn, prescribe
- discern or comprehend“He could tell that she was unhappy”More general guess, infer
- inform positively and with certainty and confidence“I tell you that man is a crook!”Synonyms: assureMore general affirm, verify
- give evidence“he was telling on all his former colleague”Synonyms: evidence
- mark as different“We distinguish several kinds of maple”Synonyms: distinguishseparatedifferentiatesecernsecernateseveralizeseveralisetell apart
Noun (1)tells
- a Swiss patriot who lived in the early 14th century and who was renowned for his skill as an archer; according to legend an Austrian governor compelled him to shoot an apple from his son's head with his crossbow (which he did successfully without mishap)Synonyms: William TellInstance of archer
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Verb to pass information
- Spanish
- contar
- French
- dire
- German
- erzählen
- Italian
- dire
- Portuguese
- contar
- Turkish
- söylemek
- Russian
- расска́зывать rasskázyvatʹ
- Arabic
- أَخْبَرَ ʔaḵbara
- Chinese
- 告诉 gàosu
- Japanese
- 伝える tsutaeru
36 more languages
- Dutch
- vertellen
- Polish
- mówić
- Swedish
- berätta
- Greek
- λέω léo
- Korean
- 알리다 allida
- Indonesian
- memberi tahu
- Vietnamese
- kể
- Hungarian
- elmond
- Portuguese (PT)
- contar
- Chinese (Trad.)
- 告訴 gàosu
- Albanian
- tregoj
- Breton
- lavaret
- Catalan
- dir
- Corsican
- dì
- Czech
- říkat
- Danish
- fortælle
- Esperanto
- diri
- Estonian
- ütlema
- Finnish
- kertoa
- Georgian
- თქმა tkma
- Hebrew
- סִפֵּר sipér
- Icelandic
- segja
- Kurdish
- gotin
- Latvian
- stāstīt
- Lithuanian
- sakyti
- Malagasy
- milaza
- Norwegian
- fortelle
- Romanian
- spune
- Scottish Gaelic
- innis
- Serbo-Croatian
- reći
- Slovak
- povedať
- Slovenian
- povedati
- Swahili
- kuambia
- Walloon
- dîre
- Welsh
- dweud
- Yiddish
- זאָגן zogn
Verb to discern, notice, identify or distinguish
- German
- unterscheiden
- Portuguese
- distinguir
- Russian
- различа́ть različátʹ
- Dutch
- vertellen
- Swedish
- säga
- Hungarian
- megmond
- Portuguese (PT)
- dizer
- Albanian
- dalloj
- Czech
- rozeznat
- Finnish
- sanoa
Verb to instruct
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: AS. tellan, from talu tale, number, speech; akin to D. tellen to count, G. zählen, OHG. zellen to count, tell, say, Icel. telja, Dan. tale to speak, tælle to count. See Tale that which is told.
1. To mention one by one, or piece by piece; to recount; to enumerate; to reckon; to number; to count; as, to tell money. “An heap of coin he told.” Edmund Spenser
He telleth the number of the stars.— Ps. cxlvii. 4.
Tell the joints of the body.— Taylor, Jeremy
2. To utter or recite in detail; to give an account of; to narrate.
Of which I shall tell all the array.— Geoffrey Chaucer
And not a man appears to tell their fate.— Alexander Pope
3. To make known; to publish; to disclose; to divulge.
Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?— Gen. xii. 18.
4. To give instruction to; to make report to; to acquaint; to teach; to inform.
A secret pilgrimage, That you to-day promised to tell me of?— William Shakespeare
5. To order; to request; to command.
He told her not to be frightened.— Charles Dickens
6. To discern so as to report; to ascertain by observing; to find out; to discover; as, I can not tell where one color ends and the other begins.
7. To make account of; to regard; to reckon; to value; to estimate. obsolete
I ne told no dainity of her love.— Geoffrey Chaucer
☞ Tell, though equivalent in some respect to speak and say, has not always the same application. We say, to tell truth or falsehood, to tell a number, to tell the reasons, to tell something or nothing; but we never say, to tell a speech, discourse, or oration, or to tell an argument or a lesson. It is much used in commands; as, tell me the whole story; tell me all you know.
To tell off, to count; to divide. Sir Walter Scott
Synonyms: To communicate; impart; reveal; disclose; inform; acquaint; report; repeat; rehearse; recite.
1. To give an account; to make report.
That I may publish with the voice of thankgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.— Ps. xxvi. 7.
2. To take effect; to produce a marked effect; as, every shot tells; every expression tells.
To tell of. (a) To speak of; to mention; to narrate or describe. (b) To inform against; to disclose some fault of. — To tell on, to inform against. Archaic & Colloq.
Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David.— 1 Sam. xxvii. 11.
That which is told; tale; account. rare
I am at the end of my tell.— Horace Walpole
Origin: Ar.
A hill or mound. William McClure Thomson
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54