retelling
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of retelling
Explanation
A retelling is a new version of an old story. Somehow, your retelling of your dad's hilarious tale of catching a shoe instead of a fish is never quite as funny as his version. Retelling comes from the verb retell, or "tell again." You can use this word for literal retellings, when an anecdote is simply told all over again for the second (or third) time. It's also useful for updated versions of classic stories. The movie Clueless is a retelling of the Jane Austen novel Emma. And Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres is a retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear.
Vocabulary lists containing retelling
Literary Terms, Grade 8, Units 2–3
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Conventions, Writing to Sources, and Speaking & Listening (Unit 1)
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Additional Literary Terms, Unit 5
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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.
This production feels like a fleeting moment — a reunion of friends and collaborators retelling a myth that is recounted over and over again.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
A cinematic retelling of Homer’s epic is not a particularly original idea.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Sarnoski is the perfect person to do a retelling tilted toward the end of a rampager’s life.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026
Now Lerone Martin, a Stanford professor and senior editor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project, offers a rich if overlong retelling of King’s life prior to Montgomery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026
Almost everyone had one, and those that didn’t added to the tales by retelling them.
From "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez
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.
