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:
These people were someone’s bandmate, roommate, and friend, and Thayil’s ability to convey those feelings and that grief had to be difficult to retell and get on the page.
From Salon ● Jun. 9, 2026
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
In the years since Gemma first went to the police, she has had to retell her story to more than 20 different officers, she says.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 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
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
Osbourne retells the infamous story of orally beheading an unsuspecting bat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 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
But it’s a history that must be retold to be understood and appreciated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2026
Baldwin and Mayall first worked together on the children's television show Grim Tales in 1989, in which Mayall retold stories by the Brothers Grimm.
From BBC ● May 25, 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
He started all over and retold what he had said.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
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
His movie is a remarkable piece of autofiction, retelling his first experience with air travel as if it were a love story.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026
In the retelling of the ancient historian’s chronicle of the fifth century B.C.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
Abby and I found a food truck, got in line, and she launched into a heated retelling of all her catches.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
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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.
