tale

[ teyl ]

/ teɪl /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR tale ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a narrative that relates the details of some real or imaginary event, incident, or case; story: a tale about Lincoln's dog.

a literary composition having the form of such a narrative.

a falsehood; lie.

a rumor or piece of gossip, often malicious or untrue.

the full number or amount.

Archaic. enumeration; count.

Obsolete. talk; discourse.

Nearby words

Origin of tale

before 900; Middle English; Old English talu series, list, narrative, story; cognate with Dutch taal speech, language, German Zahl number, Old Norse tala number, speech. See tell¹

Can be confusedtail tale

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for tale

Urban America is often portrayed as a tale of two kinds of places, those that “have it” and those who do not.
The Rustbelt Roars Back From the Dead|Joel Kotkin, Richey Piiparinen|December 7, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Much of the fun of The Churchill Factor comes from the delightful and evervescent way Johnson tells the tale.
Boris Johnson’s Churchill Man Crush|Michael F. Bishop|November 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The basic plot of The Virgin Spring, which was lifted off a Medieval tale, became the framework for The Last House on the Left.
Wes Craven's Favorite Scary Movies|Wes Craven|October 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
At its core, the tale revealed by the leak of what may be more than a million classified documents is a complicated one.
‘Citizenfour’ Is Mesmerizing (If You Don’t Mind the Omissions)|Michael Cohen|October 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST

The result is a Shakespeare-imbued tale of the 20th century.
Book Bag: 5 Novels Shakespeare Sort of Wrote|Lois Leveen|October 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Hear me—hear me, while I tell you the tale of my troubles, that others may take warning.
An Outcast|F. Colburn Adams
The old woman tried to tell Jud Carpenter's tale, and Conway heard enough.
The Bishop of Cottontown|John Trotwood Moore
One of her dogs had strayed, and she was beating the town to find him; but she paused to listen to his tale.
Grey Town|Gerald Baldwin
I will give you a drawing of it, and if you find it as I describe, you will know that my tale is true.
A Dozen Ways Of Love|Lily Dougall
Before we turned in, the scaffolding of the tale had been put together.
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 13 (of 25)|Robert Louis Stevenson

British Dictionary definitions for tale

tale

/ (teɪl) /

noun

a report, narrative, or story

one of a group of short stories connected by an overall narrative framework

a malicious or meddlesome rumour or piece of gossipto bear tales against someone
(in combination)talebearer; taleteller

a fictitious or false statement

tell tales

to tell fanciful lies
to report malicious stories, trivial complaints, etc, esp to someone in authority

tell a tale to reveal something important

tell its own tale to be self-evident

archaic

a number; amount
computation or enumeration

an obsolete word for talk

Word Origin for tale

Old English talu list; related to Old Frisian tele talk, Old Saxon, Old Norse tala talk, number, Old High German zala number

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

Word Origin and History for tale

tale

Old English talu "story, tale, the action of telling," from Proto-Germanic *talo (cf. Dutch taal "speech, language"), from PIE root *del- "to recount, count." The secondary English sense of "number, numerical reckoning" (c.1200) probably was the primary one in Germanic; cf. teller (see tell) and Old Frisian tale, Middle Dutch tal "number," Old Saxon tala "number," Old High German zala, German Zahl "number."

The ground sense of the Modern English word in its main meaning, then, might have been "an account of things in their due order." Related to talk and tell. Meaning "things divulged that were given secretly, gossip" is from mid-14c.; first record of talebearer "tattletale" is late 15c.

Idioms and Phrases with tale

tale

see old wives' tale; tall tale; tell tales; thereby hangs a tale.

tale

noun

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Origin of tale

Examples from the Web for tale

tale

noun

Word Origin for tale

tale

tale