Word.ws English Dictionary

retelling

retelling is the present participle and gerund of retell.

Meaning of retell

Verb

retell (third-person singular simple present retells, present participle retelling, simple past and past participle retold)

  1. To tell again, often differently, what one has read or heard; to paraphrase.
    • She will retell the story from her perspective in the next meeting.

Noun

retelling (plural retellings)

  1. A new, changed, or adapted version of a story.
    • The new film is a needless retelling of what was already a cinematic classic.
    • Like those of other saints, Mira Bai's life story lies within a number of retellings, each more detailed than the last, so that her biography now includes burnishings that probably would not pass any historian's test.2001, Kenneth L. Woodward, The Book of Miracles

Forms of retelling

pluralretellings

Questions about retelling

What does retelling mean?
Retelling means a new, changed, or adapted version of a story.
What is retelling the present participle and gerund of?
Retelling is the present participle and gerund of retell.
What part of speech is retelling?
Retelling is a noun.
What is the plural of retelling?
The plural of retelling is retellings.

Words near retelling in the dictionary

  1. retell
  2. retellability
  3. retellable
  4. reteller
  5. retellers
  6. retelling
  7. retellings
  8. retelliptine
  9. retells
  10. retem
  11. retemper

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: retelling (page history and authors); retell (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “retelling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/retelling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.