Synonyms

tails

American

[teylz] / teɪlz /

adjective

(of a coin) with the reverse facing up.

On the next toss, the coin came up tails.

noun

tailcoat.

tails British

/ teɪlz /

plural noun

an informal name for tail coat

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

interjection

with the reverse side of a coin uppermost: used as a call before tossing a coin Compare heads

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of tails

First recorded in 1675–85; tail ¹ + -s ¹

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He wanted to take a crack at writing like artists like Billie Eilish, but he couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

From Salon • Mar. 29, 2026

Northern folk legend holds that arctic foxes create the Northern Lights by sweeping snow into the air with their tails, we learn in an author’s note.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026

England will start the tournament with their tails up after beating co-hosts Sri Lanka in both one-day international and T20 series -- they have lost just one T20 series since the 2024 World Cup.

From Barron's • Feb. 3, 2026

While these models successfully describe simple, comet-like gas tails, they struggle to recreate the double-tailed structure observed around WASP-121b.

From Science Daily • Jan. 20, 2026

“You would forget to hang on to your tails, and you’d get them tangled in my spokes.”

From "Ralph S. Mouse" by Beverly Cleary

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