retelling
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of retelling
Explanation
A retelling is a new version of an old story. Somehow, your retelling of your dad's hilarious tale of catching a shoe instead of a fish is never quite as funny as his version. Retelling comes from the verb retell, or "tell again." You can use this word for literal retellings, when an anecdote is simply told all over again for the second (or third) time. It's also useful for updated versions of classic stories. The movie Clueless is a retelling of the Jane Austen novel Emma. And Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres is a retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear.
Vocabulary lists containing retelling
Literary Terms, Grade 8, Units 2–3
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Conventions, Writing to Sources, and Speaking & Listening (Unit 1)
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Additional Literary Terms, Unit 5
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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.
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 • Mar. 18, 2026
Making a purposefully idiosyncratic retelling of a classic tale came with its own challenges.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 1, 2026
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 • Feb. 25, 2026
Decades of retelling this story means "kindliest" has now turned into "friendliest".
From BBC • Feb. 13, 2026
It was a tale that she relished retelling, and her rich accounts shed plenty of light on what happened next.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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.
