Definitions

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

  • adjective Having force and producing a striking effect.
  • adjective Revealing previously unknown information.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Effective; impressive; striking: as, a telling speech on tariff reform.

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

  • adjective Operating with great effect; effective.

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

  • adjective having force
  • adjective revealing information
  • adjective serving to convince
  • verb Present participle of tell.
  • noun The act of narration.
  • noun The disclosure of information.
  • noun archaic Counting, numbering.

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

  • noun disclosing information or giving evidence about another
  • adjective powerfully persuasive
  • noun an act of narration
  • adjective disclosing unintentionally
  • adjective producing a strong effect
  • noun informing by words

Etymologies

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