Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A recital of events or happenings; a report or revelation.
  • noun A malicious story, piece of gossip, or petty complaint.
  • noun A deliberate lie; a falsehood.
  • noun A narrative of real or imaginary events; a story.
  • noun Archaic A tally or reckoning; a total.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Number.
  • noun Numbering; enumeration; reckoning; account; count.
  • noun A number of things considered as an aggregate; a sum.
  • noun Account; estimation; regard; heed. See to give tale, below.
  • noun Speech; language.
  • noun A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
  • noun A report of any matter; a relation; a version.
  • noun In law, a count; a declaration.
  • noun An account of an assorted fact or circumstance; a rumor; a report; especially, an idle or malicious story; a piece of gossip or slander; a lie: as, to tell tales.
  • noun A narrative, oral or written (in prose or verse), of some real or imaginary event or group of events: a story, either true or fictitious, having for its aim to please or instruct, or to preserve move or less remote historical facts; more especially, a story displaying embellishment or invention.
  • noun to agree; concur; be in accord.
  • To speak; discourse; tell tales.
  • noun See tael.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun See tael.
  • noun That which is told; an oral relation or recital; any rehearsal of what has occured; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
  • noun A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration; a count, in distinction from measure or weight; a number reckoned or stated.
  • noun (Law), obsolete A count or declaration.
  • noun [Obs.] to make account of.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To tell stories.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete Number.
  • noun obsolete Account; estimation; regard; heed.
  • noun obsolete Speech; language.
  • noun obsolete A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
  • noun law, obsolete A count; declaration.
  • noun rare or archaic Numbering; enumeration; reckoning; account; count.
  • noun rare or archaic A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
  • noun rare or archaic A report of any matter; a relation; a version.
  • noun An account of an asserted fact or circumstance; a rumour; a report, especially an idle or malicious story; a piece of gossip or slander; a lie.
  • noun a type of story.
  • noun A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
  • noun slang The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark (sense 3.3) of a confidence game
  • verb To speak; discourse; tell tales.
  • verb dialectal To reckon; consider (someone) to have something.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program
  • noun a trivial lie

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English talu; see del- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English talu ("tale, series, calculation, list, statement, deposition, relation, communication, narrative, fable, story, accusation, action at law"), from Proto-Germanic *talō (“calculation, number”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to reckon, count”). Cognate with Dutch taal ("language, speech"), German Zahl ("number, figure"), Danish tale ("speech"), Icelandic tala ("speech, talk, discourse, number, figure"), Latin dolus ("guile, deceit, fraud"), Ancient Greek  (dólos, "wile, bait"), Albanian dalloj ("to distinguish, tell"), Kurdish til ("finger"), Old Armenian տող (toł, "row"). Related to tell, talk.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English talen, from Old English talian ("to count, calculate, reckon, account, consider, think, esteem, value, argue, tell, relate, impute, assign"), from Proto-Germanic *talōnan (“to count”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to count, reckon, aim, calculate, adjust”). Cognate with German zählen ("to count, number, reckon"), Swedish tala ("to speak, talk"), Icelandic tala ("to talk").

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Examples

  • A form of creative reaction, which will be a part of the language return given by the first-grade child from the telling of the tale, will be his _reading of the tale_.

    A Study of Fairy Tales Laura F. Kready

  • I haven't got the vaguest idea why August Derleth made it the title tale of his first HPL compendium, and I've got only condescending, insulting ideas why it seems to take such central place in Lovecraft criticism since.

    Kenneth Hite's Journal princeofcairo 2007

  • And the last story, the title tale, features a knight of the realm, no less, who ends up being committed to Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum , as it was known in those days.

    Patrick McGrath: Blood and Water Michael Allen 2005

  • Three of these ten solidly professional stories, including the title tale, are new, the rest from original anthologies.

    Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2003

  • It seems curious that Canton should make a second mistake and refuse it again, but publishers were wary in those days, and even the newspaper success of the Frog story did not tempt him to venture it as the title tale of a book.

    Complete Letters of Mark Twain Mark Twain 1872

  • It seems curious that Canton should make a second mistake and refuse it again, but publishers were wary in those days, and even the newspaper success of the Frog story did not tempt him to venture it as the title tale of a book.

    Mark Twain's Letters — Volume 1 (1835-1866) Mark Twain 1872

  • Smurfs has three shorter stories -- the title tale, "The Flying Smurf," and "The Smurf and His Neighbors" -- while Magic Flute is a full-length graphic novel.

    The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent. 2010

  • The title tale communicates the disturbance caused by the reentrance of a former acquaintance into the life of a busy writer.

    unknown title 2009

  • The title tale, "Harry and the Pirates," is a bit problematic.

    Bookgasm 2009

  • I wonder if you had considered that the "philosophical difference" between you & RTD that's at the core of your discontent with his tale is actually an inherent cultural difference?

    TORCHWOOD: CoE...Episode 5...Spoilers! rabid1st 2009

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