adjective
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having a marked effect or impact
a telling blow
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revealing
a telling smile
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of telling
Explanation
Something that's telling is either significant,or it reveals information. Getting twice as much allowance will have a telling effect on your ability to buy new books. When it comes to economics, a telling indicator of a country's state is how much money its citizens spend each month. And you can see that a movie has had a telling effect on its audience if it leaves them all weeping. If you reveal something without meaning to, that's telling as well: "The look on his face was telling." This adjective dates from the mid-1800s, from the verb tell and its sense of "to reveal or disclose."
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.
He left — escaped, trekked, fled, depending on who is telling it — at 15 in 1967.
From Los Angeles Times • May 19, 2026
Kayleigh McEnany echoed Hannity’s phrasing, telling congressional Republicans to “wake up” and “become Spencer Pratt.”
From Salon • May 18, 2026
“The story I was telling myself limited what I thought I could have until somebody stepped in and said … Families look like all different things,” she shared.
From MarketWatch • May 18, 2026
In his telling, every meeting packs a punchline, conclusions are never foregone and suspense is rarely more than a page or two away.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 17, 2026
She muttered, “What haven’t you been telling me all this time?”
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
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.
