Synonyms

retell

American

[ree-tel] / riˈtɛl /

verb (used with object)

retold, retelling

to tell (a story, tale, etc.) over again or in a new way.

It’s Sleeping Beauty retold with a different twist.

retell British

/ riːˈtɛl /

verb

to relate (a story, etc) again or differently

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of retell

re- + tell ¹

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.

She could be wryly funny about the impossibility of escaping her past; in time, her exasperation with endlessly retelling the story of her childhood became an aspect of the story.

From The Wall Street Journal

Their retelling imagines the star-crossed lovers meeting later in life, repositioning the story from a perspective of age and experience, with the title characters aged in their 40s.

From BBC

Had “Traversal” been nothing but Ms. Popova’s retelling of these histories, it might have been a far more successful evocation of these patterns of destruction and creation.

From The Wall Street Journal

Making a purposefully idiosyncratic retelling of a classic tale came with its own challenges.

From Los Angeles Times

I don’t know whether or not he is a narcissist, but from your retelling, he is someone who has always looked out for himself.

From MarketWatch

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023