Word.ws English Dictionary

tell its own tale

tell its own tale verb: to speak for itself; to require no explanation.

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

Forms of tell its own tale

third-person singular presenttells its own tale
present participletelling its own tale
past participletold its own tale
pasttold its own tale

Questions about tell its own tale

What does tell its own tale mean?
Tell its own tale means to speak for itself; to require no explanation.
What part of speech is tell its own tale?
Tell its own tale is a verb.
What is the past tense of tell its own tale?
The past tense of tell its own tale is told its own tale.

Words near tell its own tale in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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