noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The act and skills of presenting stories and tales. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   The act of making up stories with the intention of deceiving; telling tales. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

chitchatgossipidle talknewsystorystorytelling

Etymology

From Middle English tale tellyng; equivalent to tale + telling.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.