Word.ws English Dictionary

tell the time

tell the time is the alternative form of tell time.

Meaning of tell time

Verb

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

  1. To measure time, to determine the current time.
    • Ancient civilizations told time at night by the passage of stars.
    Synonyms:
    keep time
  2. (specifically) To read the time as displayed on an analog clock.
    • He couldn't tell time until he was in his teens.

Forms of tell the time

third-person singular presenttells the time
present participletelling the time
past participletold the time
pasttold the time

Questions about tell the time

What is tell the time the alternative form of?
Tell the time is the alternative form of tell time.

Words near tell the time in the dictionary

  1. tell story
  2. tell tale
  3. tell tales
  4. tell tales out of school
  5. tell the difference
  6. tell the time
  7. tell the truth
  8. tell the truth and shame the devil
  9. tell time
  10. tell us another
  11. tell us another one

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tell the time (page history and authors); tell time (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 the time.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tell_the_time. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.