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tell

Pronunciation: /tɛl/

The English word “tell” has 19 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To determine the number, amount, or value of [something].
  2. To notice, discern. (Roughly, "can tell" means "know" but with a sense of direct perception.)
  3. To pick up on a difference. (See tell apart for more.)
  4. To narrate, to recount.
  5. To convey by speech; to say.
  6. To instruct or inform.
  7. To order; to direct, to say to someone.
  8. To use (beads or similar objects) as an aid to prayer.
  9. To inform someone in authority about a wrongdoing.
  10. To reveal information in prose through outright expository statement — contrasted with show.
  11. To show, be showing, be revealed.
  12. To reveal.
  13. To have an effect, especially a noticeable one; to be apparent, to be demonstrated.
  14. (of a fact) To support a certain position.

noun

  1. A reflexive, often habitual behavior, especially one occurring in a context that often features attempts at deception by persons under psychological stress (such as a poker game or police interrogation), that reveals information that the person exhibiting the behavior is attempting to withhold.
  2. A giveaway; something that unintentionally reveals or hints at a secret.
  3. That which is told; a tale or account.
  4. A private message to an individual in a chat room; a whisper.
  5. A hill or mound, originally and especially in the Middle East, over or consisting of the ruins of ancient settlements.

Etymology

From Middle English tellen (“to count, tell”), from Old English tellan (“to count, tell”), from Proto-West Germanic *talljan, from Proto-Germanic *taljaną, *talzijaną (“to count, enumerate”), from Proto-Germanic *talą, *talō (“number, counting”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol- (“calculation, fraud”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian tälle (“to say; tell”), West Frisian telle (“to count”), West…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.