retell
Americanverb (used with object)
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retells,
present (3rd person singular)
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retold,
past participle, past
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retelling
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
retellsimple
-
retellssimple
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have retoldperfect
-
has retoldperfect
-
am retellingprogressive
-
are retellingprogressive
-
is retellingprogressive
-
have been retellingperfect progressive
-
has been retellingperfect progressive
Past
-
retoldsimple
-
had retoldperfect
-
was retellingprogressive
-
were retellingprogressive
-
had been retellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of retell
Explanation
If you recite your story a second time, you retell it. After they hear about how you actually slipped on a banana peel, your laughing friends may beg you to retell the incident over and over again. To retell is to reiterate something, or to tell it again. You might retell your favorite joke every time you have a new audience, or you may find yourself having to retell the details of a fender bender you witnessed once the police show up. When a writer takes up an old theme or story to put their own new twist on it, they retell it: "My goal was to retell the classic Cinderella tale in a modern way."
Vocabulary lists containing retell
Vocabulary of the Common Core
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Conventions, Writing to Sources, and Speaking & Listening, Unit 1
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Part 3 Vocabulary (Unit 4)
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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.
See Examples For:
Anthony Puzo, Mario Puzo's son, told Publishers Weekly: "We had been looking for someone to retell the story from a new perspective."
From Barron's ● May 14, 2026
She did not need to retell this story; she could have left it out completely, and unless you had been there, you wouldn’t have known that it ever happened.
From Salon ● Apr. 14, 2026
Now “Five Bullets,” by Elliot Williams, and “Fear and Fury,” by Heather Ann Thompson, retell the story.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
The new footage from the deep provides another chance to retell Scott's story, says David Waterhouse.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2025
While making New Year’s resolutions, we also count our blessings and retell stories about the past year and the lessons we have learned and what we can do to be better this year.
From "Betty Before X" by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson
“I Play Rocky” both retells a glorious experience and offers one of its own.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
He retells his memories with an unflinching gaze.
From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026
The retail industry treats it like a speed bump between Halloween and Christmas, and when history retells its origins, it’s not a holiday worth protesting to keep.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2025
It retells the story using interviews and a great deal of footage from the actual show, which underlines how innovative it was.
From New York Times ● May 3, 2024
In other words, the song relives and retells the experiences of a child in another century and makes her story highly relatable to us today.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
There’s a story that is told and retold about this kind of inequality and why it “makes sense.”
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026
This editorial is hard to read, but unless we want to experience similar terror-driven antisemitic outrages in the future, the truth must be told and retold to and by people of good will.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
Now, as it celebrates its centenary, staff have been looking back on the company's role in developing a treatment for a rare degenerative condition affecting young boys – a story retold in a Hollywood film.
From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2025
His grandmother retold rose-tinted stories of building aircraft equipment during World War II before being forcibly relegated back to her domestic life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2025
“A terrible secret,” Bethan called it, enjoying the attention she received as she retold the embellished story.
From "Son" by Lois Lowry
Fittingly, for the retelling of a story about an iconic underdog, Ippolito’s tape made its way to Farrelly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
Maas's series debuted in 2015 as a dark retelling of "Beauty and the Beast."
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026
In the days leading up to Dussehra in northern India, performers wear elaborate costumes and make-up to stage Ramlila, the dramatic retelling of the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
Their voices are notably, strangely absent from your retelling of this family saga.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
What if it goes on forever, the telling and retelling?
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
