tale
UK/ˈteɪl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/ˈtæɪ̯l/
tale noun: a rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story. Also the alternative form of tael.
Noun
tale (plural tales)
- A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
- the Canterbury Tales
- And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale.1631, John Milton, L'Allegro
- A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
- the ignorant, […] who measure by tale, and not by weight1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Book I, Preface, §4
- In packing, they keep a just tale of the number that every hogshead containeth ...1602, Richard Carew, Survey of Cornwall
- The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark or victim.
- 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.
- Don't tell tales!
- “A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing.[…]”1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- Number; tally; quota.
- And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.1611, King James Version, Exodus 5:8
- Both number twice a day the milky dams
And once she takes the tale of all the lambs.1697, John Dryden, The Works of Virgil, Pastoral III
- Account; estimation; regard; heed.
- Speech; language.
- A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
- A count; declaration.
- A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
- A report of any matter; a relation; a version.
- […] birds […] are aptest by their voice to tell tales what they find; and likewise by the motion of their flight to express the same.1605, Francis Bacon, Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human, Volume I, Chapter IX
Verb
tale (third-person singular simple present tales, present participle taling, simple past and past participle taled)
Also used as
tale is also the alternative form of tael.
tale meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit and Pashto
tale in Hindi
- type of story
- कहानी kahānī, हिकायत hikāyat, दास्तान dāstān, क़िस्सा qissā
tale in Urdu
- type of story
- کَہانی kahānī, داسْتان dāstān, قِصَّہ qissa, حِکایَت hikāyat, نَقْل naql
tale in Sanskrit
- type of story
- कथा kathā
tale in Pashto
- type of story
- حکايت hekāyat, قصه qesa, داستان dāstān
More languagesFewer languages
- tale in Arabic
- حِكَايَة ḥikāya, قِصَّة qiṣṣa
- tale in Malay
- kisah, hikayat
- tale in Indonesian
- kisah, hikayat
- tale in Thai
- นิทาน ní-taan, อาขยาน aa-kà-yǎan, เรื่องราว rʉ̂ʉang-raao
- tale in Vietnamese
- chuyện, truyện
Examples of tale in a sentence
- Why, it was a calf's tail, and if the calf's tail had been longer this tale would have been longer too.1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 214:
- They proceeded with some rigour, these Custodiars; took written inventories, clapt-on seals, exacted everywhere strict tale and measure1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 5, Twelfth Century:
Forms of tale
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tales |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tales |
| present participle | taling |
| past participle | taled |
| past | taled |
Origin of tale
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”).
Words formed from tale
- aftertale
- Banbury tale
- betall
- blab-tale
- blabtale
- carrytale
- cautionary tale
- dead men tell no tales
- fairy-tale
- fairy-tale ending
- fairy tale
- fairytale
- fish tale
- folk tale
- folktale
- foretale
- frame tale
- live to tell the tale
- midtale
- Milesian tale
- morality tale
- old wives' tale
- shaggy dog tale
- shaggy-dog tale
- spin a tale
- taleable
- tale as old as time
- tale bearer
- tale-bearer
- talebearer
- talebearing
- talebook
- talecarrier
- taleful
- taleless
- talelike
- talemonger
- tale of the tape
- tale of woe
- talesman
- taleteller
- tale-teller
- taletelling
- tall tale
- tattletale
- tell its own tale
- tell-tale
- telltale
- tell tale
- telltale compass
- tell tales
- tell tales out of school
- tell-tale-tit
- tenmantale
- thereby hangs a tale
- traveller's tale
- taler
Phrases with tale
- faerie tale
- spun a tale
- spins a tale
- tale bearers
- old wise tale
- spinning a tale
- traveler's tale
- told its own tale
- Monk's Tale stanza
- tells its own tale
- telling its own tale
- lived to tell the tale
3 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with tale
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- pale
- avail
- wale
- whale
- bail
- hail
- yale
- bale
- snail
- travail
- brail
- exhale
- frail
- jail
- prevail
- swale
- vail
- wail
- derail
- dwale
- entail
- flail
- Gail
- gayle
- impale
- kale
- quail
- regale
- spale
- thumbnail
- white whale
- ale
- curtail
- drail
- gale
- inhale
- retail
- shale
- tael
- unveil
- ail
- all hail
- assail
- ayel
- beyond the pale
- braille
- cakes and ale
- camail
Questions about tale
- What does tale mean?
- Tale means a rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
- What is tale in Hindi?
- Tale in Hindi is कहानी (kahānī), हिकायत (hikāyat), दास्तान (dāstān). See Tale meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use tale in a sentence?
- Why, it was a calf's tail, and if the calf's tail had been longer this tale would have been longer too.
- What part of speech is tale?
- Tale can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce tale?
- Tale is pronounced /ˈteɪl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of tale?
- The plural of tale is tales.
Words near tale in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tale (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-tale.ogg.
Cite this entry: “tale.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tale. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.