retell
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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retellsimple
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retellssimple
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have retoldperfect
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has retoldperfect
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am retellingprogressive
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are retellingprogressive
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is retellingprogressive
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have been retellingperfect progressive
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has been retellingperfect progressive
Past
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retoldsimple
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had retoldperfect
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was retellingprogressive
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were retellingprogressive
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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
With such vividly realized characters, the Coens portray a truth far larger than the crimes they purport to retell.
From Salon ● Feb. 7, 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
Before the alert was added, she frequently had to retell the story of how he was failed.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2025
I could retell it, but nothing like Le Guin.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
Giant, the new film starring Pierce Brosnan and Amir El-Masry, retells the coach and fighter's relationship.
From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2026
Osbourne retells the infamous story of orally beheading an unsuspecting bat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2025
The Hulu limited series starring Grace Van Patten retells the events surrounding Amanda Knox, a woman convicted of murdering her roommate, only for the conviction to be overturned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 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
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
It’s a story that’s been retold in recent weeks amid the Andes virus outbreak on a cruise ship to show how outbreaks sometimes lead to scientific breakthroughs.
From MarketWatch ● May 17, 2026
So many moments, so many stories that will be told and retold among this generation of Dodgers fans and passed down to the next.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2026
She’s made something different from your typical adaptation, a movie that brings a fresh perspective to a very old and frequently retold tale.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2026
That year, 1831, when Harriet regarded herself as sufficiently grown up to wear a bandanna, she kept hearing a strange, fascinating story, told and retold, in the quarter, in the fields.
From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry
In his retelling of Homer’s epic poem, Nolan imagines Odysseus as a man haunted by the sacking of Troy.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2026
Hugh Jackman plays Robin Hood in his final days, a loose retelling of a 500-year-old ballad, and seems to have ancient dirt creased into his wrinkles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
In the retelling of the ancient historian’s chronicle of the fifth century B.C.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
Hastings used to revel in retelling the story of the melees that broke out that day.
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
They’d tell what they’d seen, embroider the rest, and with every retelling, Dirtyhands would get crazier and more ruthless.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
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.
