Word.ws English Dictionary

tell its own story

tell its own story is the alternative form of tell its own tale.

Meaning of tell its own tale

Verb

tell its own tale (third-person singular simple present tells its own tale, present participle telling its own tale, simple past and past participle told its own tale)

  1. (idiomatic) To speak for itself; to require no explanation.
    • […] and looking out she saw Sir William Grant approaching at an easy trot, for he was anxious to avoid giving her any sudden shock; but the poor animal's state told its own tale; and starting up, Lady Sydney herself opened the hall-door […]1868, Frances Mary Oxenham, Edith Sydney, page 19

Questions about tell its own story

What is tell its own story the alternative form of?
Tell its own story is the alternative form of tell its own tale.

Words near tell its own story in the dictionary

  1. tell it like it is
  2. tell it to Sweeney
  3. tell it to the hand
  4. tell it to the judge
  5. tell it to the marines
  6. tell its own story
  7. tell its own tale
  8. Tell Jadid
  9. tell me about it
  10. tell me another one
  11. tell me something I don't know

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tell its own story (page history and authors); tell its own 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.

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Cite this entry: “tell its own story.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tell_its_own_story. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.