tale

Meaning

Noun

1. A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
2. A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
3. (slang) The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark or victim.
4. 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.
5. (obsolete) Number; tally; quota.
6. (obsolete) Account; estimation; regard; heed.
7. (obsolete) Speech; language.
8. (obsolete) A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
9. (obsolete) A count; declaration.
10. A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
11. A report of any matter; a relation; a version.

Verb

1. (obsolete) To speak; discourse; tell tales.
2. To reckon; consider (someone) to have something.

Concepts

tale

story

narrative

legend

fable

account

fairy tale

narration

history

myth

news

fib

yarn

anecdote

fiction

episode

report

description

taradiddle

tarradiddle

message

event

happening

occurrence

tell a story

recital

acquaintance

connection

interrelation

relation

relationship

understanding

fairy story

romance

short story

version

cock-and-bull story

invention

talebearing

novelet

gossip

tittle-tattle

talk

theater

theatre

confession

affair

speech

word

saga

verb

song

short-story

riddle

falsehood

lie

allegory

folk tale

fabrication

tall tale

chronicle

adage

parable

proverb

recounting

narrate

folktale

relate

admit

announce

declare

evidence

indicate

inform

mention

tell

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈteɪl/

Etymology

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.