Word.ws English Dictionary

tell-all

tell-all adjective: telling all; revealing everything, particularly details or information that are normally withheld.

Adjective

tell-all (not comparable)

  1. Telling all; revealing everything, particularly details or information that are normally withheld.
    • The statesman's tell-all memoirs were not published until long after death.
    • Open source is a tell-all software development strategy.

Noun

tell-all (plural tell-alls)

  1. A publication, usually a book or magazine article, which tells all, revealing every detail, particularly information that is normally withheld.
    • At this point, we could all write a tell-all about our tabloid childhoods and contrive an autobiographical performance about the pleasures of humiliation.1998, Laurie Stone, Close to the Bone: Memoirs of Hurt, Rage, and Desire, page xi
    • Mikerra had been offered a seven-figure book deal for a tell-all chronicling her relationship with Senator McCaffrey, his death, and the project's ultimate demise.2009, Kennedy Shaw, Tour of Duty, page 308

Examples of tell-all in a sentence

  • Will, whose inkhornisms remain a weekly treat, has had tough words for former White Housers who write tell-all books, so the younger George had better watch his tongue.1997 February 1, Walter Goodman, “The Role of Partisans in a Neutral Business”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
  • More unsettling was the origin story of the infamous tell-all book Princess in Love.2022 April 5, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair:
  • The Princess of Canada is a “sorority girl, actress, influencer, victim”, while her husband, the prince, has written a tell-all book about his family and the media called “Waaagh!”.2023 February 22, Alexi Duggins, “‘Baseless nonsense’: Meghan and Harry won’t sue South Park for mocking them”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
  • I wrote a tell-all about each and every one of you!2010, Zoe Fishman, Balancing Acts: A Novel, page 357:

Forms of tell-all

pluraltell-alls

Questions about tell-all

What does tell-all mean?
Tell-all means telling all; revealing everything, particularly details or information that are normally withheld.
How do you use tell-all in a sentence?
Will, whose inkhornisms remain a weekly treat, has had tough words for former White Housers who write tell-all books, so the younger George had better watch his tongue.
What part of speech is tell-all?
Tell-all can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near tell-all in the dictionary

  1. tell us another one
  2. tell volumes
  3. tell you the truth
  4. tell you what
  5. tell-a-story
  6. tell-all
  7. tell-alls
  8. tell-tale
  9. tell-tale compass
  10. tell-tale compasses
  11. tell-tale-tit

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tell-all (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.

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