tale

Language: en

🇬🇧 /ˈteɪl/ 🇺🇸 /ˈteɪl/

📖 Definitions

  1. noun
    A narrative or story, especially one that is imaginative, fictional, or traditional, often passed down through oral tradition or written literature.; A report or account of events or experiences, often involving gossip, rumor, or scandal; a piece of idle talk or malicious gossip.; A lie or falsehood; a deliberately untrue statement told to deceive.; A count or number; a reckoning or tally of items.; A malicious report or complaint made about someone, especially to an authority figure; an act of informing on someone.; A long or elaborate narrative, often one that is tedious or exaggerated; a tall tale.

🔗 Details

Word forms

countable Plural: tales

Collocations

fairy taletall talefolk taletale of woetell a taleold wives' tale

Derivatives

talebearertelltalestoryteller

Synonyms

storynarrativeaccountyarnfableanecdote

Commonly confused

tail
EN: 'tail' refers to the rear appendage of an animal or the back end of something; 'tale' is a story or narrative.
tell
EN: 'tell' is a verb meaning to communicate information; 'tale' is a noun meaning a story.

Spelling tips

EN: Do not confuse 'tale' (a story) with 'tail' (the rear part of an animal). They are homophones but have entirely different meanings.

💬 Examples

  1. She told her children a fairy tale before bed every night.

  2. He spread tales about his neighbors to anyone who would listen.

  3. The boy was caught telling tales to his parents about where he had been.

  4. The tale of the sheep in the flock came to exactly one hundred.

  5. The younger child ran to his mother to tell tales on his brother.

  6. He regaled us with a long tale of his adventures in the mountains.