retell
Americanverb (used with object)
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retells,
present (3rd person singular)
-
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
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
The stories we tell and retell carry the same knowing.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2025
Suesetta and I retell the whole conversation to each other, like we need to hear it again in order to understand what just happened.
From "Betty Before X" by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson
He retells his memories with an unflinching gaze.
From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026
Unfolding under the theatrical auspices of Imeldific, “Here Lies Love” retells the history of the Marcos years as a musical pageant.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026
He retells the tale in his 1994 autobiography, “American Prince.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 1, 2026
Watch: “The Book of Clarence” retells the story of Jesus with irreverence, and also devotion.
From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 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
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
When I was a kid, hearing my birth story told and retold, I never heard about Al’s prison time or his absences at the hospital.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 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
There are none to equal them in Greek mythology, except those retold by the tragic poets.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
Their voices are notably, strangely absent from your retelling of this family saga.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
The line became reenergerized while laying on the ground and started several fires, according to a retelling of the video in a July court filing by lawyers representing victims.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
A cinematic retelling of Homer’s epic is not a particularly original idea.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
In the retelling of the ancient historian’s chronicle of the fifth century B.C.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
He listened to the conversation around him, the joking, the needling, the telling and retelling.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
