retell
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have retoldperfect
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has retoldperfect 3rd person singular
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retellingparticiple
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retellssingular 3rd person
-
have been retellingperfect progressive
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are retellingprogressive
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has been retellingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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is retellingprogressive 3rd person singular
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am retellingprogressive 1st person singular
Past
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had retoldperfect
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was retellingprogressive singular
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were retellingprogressive plural
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had been retellingperfect progressive
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retoldsimple
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retoldparticiple
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.
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
The stories we tell and retell carry the same knowing.
From Salon • Oct. 7, 2025
I really want to tell, retell, those stories.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 21, 2025
Our world had been turned upside down, and now we had to retell our horror story.
From "How Dare the Sun Rise" by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
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.
