Word.ws English Dictionary

tell time

tell time verb: to measure time, to determine the current 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.

Synonyms of tell time

Forms of tell time

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

Origin of tell time

From tell in the sense of “count”.

Questions about tell time

What does tell time mean?
Tell time means to measure time, to determine the current time.
What part of speech is tell time?
Tell time is a verb.
What is the past tense of tell time?
The past tense of tell time is told time.

Words near tell time in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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 time.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tell_time. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.