Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
noun
A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark or victim.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
An account of an asserted fact or circumstance; a rumour; a report, especially an idle or malicious story; a piece of gossip or slander; a lie.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Number; tally; quota.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Account; estimation; regard; heed.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Speech; language.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A count; declaration.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
Topics: law
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, rare
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A report of any matter; a relation; a version.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, rare
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Alternative form of tael.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, alternative
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To speak; discourse; tell tales.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dialectal, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To reckon; consider (someone) to have something.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Scotland, dialectal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a trivial lie
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: fib, story, tarradiddle, taradiddle
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: lie, prevarication
Narrower terms: fairytale, fairy tale, fairy story, cock-and-bull story, song and dance
noun
a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: narrative, narration, story
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: message, content, subject matter, substance
Narrower terms: tearjerker, tall tale, folktale, folk tale, sob story, sob stuff, fairytale, fairy tale, fairy story, nursery rhyme, Canterbury Tales
History
From Middle English tale, from Old English talu (“tale, series, calculation”), from Proto-West Germanic *talu, from Proto-Germanic *talō (“calculation, number”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to reckon, count”). Cognate with West Frisian taal (“speech, language”), Dutch taal (“language, speech”), German Zahl (“number, figure”), Danish tale (“speech”), Icelandic tala (“speech, talk, discourse, number, figure”), Latin dolus (“guile, deceit, fraud”), Ancient Greek δόλος (dólos, “wile, bait”), Albanian ndjell (“to lure”), Northern Kurdish til (“finger”), Old Armenian տող (toł, “row”). Related to tell, talk.
From Middle English talen, from Old English talian (“to count, calculate, reckon”), from Proto-West Germanic *talōn, from Proto-Germanic *talōną (“to count”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to count, reckon, aim, calculate, adjust”). Cognate with Dutch talen (“to long, care”), German zahlen (“to pay”), Swedish tala (“to speak, talk”), Icelandic tala (“to talk”).
Across languages
206 source translations are retained for this English entry.
