telling
/ˈtɛlɪŋ/
telling is the present participle and gerund of tell.
Adjective
telling (comparative more telling, superlative most telling)
- Having force, or having a marked effect; weighty, effective.
- a telling blow
- Revealing information; bearing significance.
- a telling smile
- But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low.2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner's punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a...
- Serving to convince.
- telling evidence
Noun
telling (countable and uncountable, plural tellings)
- The act of narration.
- The disclosure of information.
- There may he sit and smile, or creep among the ships, or moan and sigh round islands in his great content—the miser lord of wealth in gems and pearls beyond the telling of all fables.1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 16
- Counting, numbering.
- Synonyms:
- enumeration
- Ability to determine.
- "One white man." said Bill, after a brief inspection. "Out on his line, I s'pose, and there's no tellin' when he'll be back. So we won't wait. We'll just serve notice on him."1922, A[rthur] M[urray] Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate
Meaning of tell
Verb
tell (third-person singular simple present tells, present participle telling, simple past and past participle told or (dialectal or nonstandard) telled or tolled)
- To determine the number, amount, or value of [something].
- All told, there were over a dozen. Can you tell time on a clock? He had untold wealth.
- To notice, discern. (Roughly, "can tell" means "know" but with a sense of direct perception.)
- I can tell that you're thrilled.
- To pick up on a difference. (See tell apart for more.)
- An expert can tell an original from a forgery.
- To narrate, to recount.
- I want to tell a story; I want to tell you a story.
- To convey by speech; to say.
- Finally, someone told him the truth. He seems to like to tell lies.
- To instruct or inform.
- Please tell me how to do it.
- Synonyms:
- advise
Synonyms of telling
Forms of telling
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more telling |
| superlative | most telling |
| Noun | |
| plural | tellings |
Origin of telling
Gerund from the verb tell, from tell + -ing.
Words formed from telling
Phrases with telling
- telling of
- telling on
- telling all
- telling off
- telling time
- telling apart
- telling bones
- telling noses
- telling tales
- fortune telling
- I'm telling you
- telling a story
19 more phrasesFewer phrases
- telling against
- telling volumes
- telling fortunes
- telling the time
- I'm telling a lie
- telling the truth
- you're telling me
- I'm not telling you
- kissing and telling
- who are you telling
- telling its own tale
- telling it like it is
- telling it to the hand
- keep telling yourself that
- telling tales out of school
- telling someone where to get off
- telling someone where to shove it
- telling the truth and shaming the devil
- pissing on someone's leg and telling them it's raining
Words that rhyme with telling
- shelling
- spelling
- compelling
- swelling
- belling
- selling
- smelling
- cabbeling
- dwelling
- felling
- gelling
- paralleling
1 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about telling
- What does telling mean?
- Telling means having force, or having a marked effect; weighty, effective.
- What is telling the present participle and gerund of?
- Telling is the present participle and gerund of tell.
- What part of speech is telling?
- Telling can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce telling?
- Telling is pronounced /ˈtɛlɪŋ/.
Words near telling in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: telling (page history and authors); tell (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-telling.ogg.
Cite this entry: “telling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/telling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.