- present participle of tell.
adjective
-
having a marked effect or impact
a telling blow
-
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.
Their spokesman declined to confirm the arrival, telling the BBC "this is not something we would comment on".
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
“I remember telling my friends I’m going to this basement in Midtown to learn clown and them be kind of like, ‘OK, yeah, that actually sounds like something you would do,’” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
There was not much point in telling people to keep overweighting the U.S. when it had already succeeded so well, and opportunities existed overseas.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
Her album from that year, “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” was a reintroduction to her audience, an autobiographical cycle of songs telling the story of a singer leaving home to make it on Music Row.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Luc telling me he had chosen me to come to Souilly, Luc congratulating me on becoming a Hello Girl.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
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.
