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tale

Pronunciation: /teɪl/

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Definition of tale

noun

1a fictitious or true narrative or story, especially one that is imaginatively recounted: a delightful children’s tale tales of witches and warlocks she enjoyed hearing others tell their tales
a lie.

2 archaic a number or total:an exact tale of the dead bodies

Phrases

a tale of a tub: archaic an apocryphal story.
tell tales: gossip about or reveal another person’s secrets or wrongdoings: she sparked a family row after telling tales about her mother on a TV show

Origin:

Old English talu 'telling, something told', of Germanic origin; related to Dutch taal 'speech' and German Zahl 'number', also to tell¹. tale (sense 2) is probably from Old Norse

tale in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of tale in the US English dictionary

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Other

tale

noun

Phrases

a tale of a tub

tell tales

Origin:

tale in other Oxford dictionaries

Nearby words

More results for tale

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