Adjacent Words

telling definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: disclosing unintentionally; "a telling smile"; "a telltale panel of lights"; "a telltale patch of oil on the water marked where the boat went down" [syn: revealing, telling, telltale]
2: powerfully persuasive; "a cogent argument"; "a telling presentation"; "a weighty argument" [syn: cogent, telling, weighty]
3: producing a strong effect; "gave an impressive performance as Othello"; "a telling gesture" [syn: impressive, telling] n
1: an act of narration; "he was the hero according to his own relation"; "his endless recounting of the incident eventually became unbearable" [syn: relation, telling, recounting]
2: informing by words [syn: telling, apprisal, notification]
3: disclosing information or giving evidence about another [syn: tattle, singing, telling]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1851 carrying great weight and producing a marked effect ; effective, expressive <the most telling evidence> Synonyms: see valid • tellingly adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 having a marked effect; striking. 2 significant. Derivatives: tellingly adv.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Tell Tell, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Told; p. pr. & vb. n. Telling.] [AS. tellan, from talu tale, number, speech; akin to D. tellen to count, G. z["a]hlen, OHG. zellen to count, tell, say, Icel. telja, Dan. tale to speak, t[ae]lle to count. See Tale that which is told.] 1. To mention one by one, or piece by piece; to recount; to enumerate; to reckon; to number; to count; as, to tell money. ``An heap of coin he told.'' --Spenser. He telleth the number of the stars. --Ps. cxlvii. 4. Tell the joints of the body. --Jer. Taylor. 2. To utter or recite in detail; to give an account of; to narrate. Of which I shall tell all the array. --Chaucer. And not a man appears to tell their fate. --Pope. 3. To make known; to publish; to disclose; to divulge. Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? --Gen. xii. 18. 4. To give instruction to; to make report to; to acquaint; to teach; to inform. A secret pilgrimage, That you to-day promised to tell me of? --Shak. 5. To order; to request; to command. He told her not to be frightened. --Dickens. 6. To discern so as to report; to ascertain by observing; to find out; to discover; as, I can not tell where one color ends and the other begins. 7. To make account of; to regard; to reckon; to value; to estimate. [Obs.] I ne told no dainity of her love. --Chaucer. Note: Tell, though equivalent in some respect to speak and say, has not always the same application. We say, to tell truth or falsehood, to tell a number, to tell the reasons, to tell something or nothing; but we never say, to tell a speech, discourse, or oration, or to tell an argument or a lesson. It is much used in commands; as, tell me the whole story; tell me all you know. To tell off, to count; to divide. --Sir W. Scott. Syn: To communicate; impart; reveal; disclose; inform; acquaint; report; repeat; rehearse; recite.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Telling Tell"ing, a. Operating with great effect; effective; as, a telling speech. -- Tell"ing*ly, adv.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(tellings) 1. The telling of a story or of something that has happened is the reporting of it to other people. Herbert sat quietly through the telling of this saga... N-VAR 2. If something is telling, it shows the true nature of a person or situation. How a man shaves may be a telling clue to his age. = revealing ADJ • tellingly Most tellingly, perhaps, chimpanzees do not draw as much information from the world around them as we do. ADV: ADV with cl, ADV with v 3. A telling argument or criticism is a very effective one. The most telling condemnation of the system was that it failed to fulfil its function. ADJ: usu ADJ n 4. You use there's no telling to introduce a statement when you want to say that it is impossible to know what will happen in a situation. There's no telling how long the talks could drag on... PHRASE: usu PHR wh

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Effective, powerful.

Moby Thesaurus

absolute, accounting, acid, adducible, admissible, agitating, announcement, armipotent, attestative, attestive, authentic, authoritative, based on, biting, breathtaking, celebrated, census, certain, charged, charismatic, charming, circumstantial, cliff-hanging, cogent, conclusive, consequential, considerable, conspicuous, conveyance, convincing, corrosive, counting, cumulative, cutting, dactylonomy, damning, decisive, determinative, disclosure, disquieting, distinguished, distracting, disturbing, documentary, documented, driving, dynamic, effective, effectual, efficacious, electric, eminent, enchanting, energetic, enumeration, esteemed, estimable, evidential, evidentiary, ex parte, exceptional, exciting, exhilarating, extraordinary, eye-witness, factual, final, firsthand, foliation, forceful, forcible, founded on, galvanic, giving, grounded on, gutsy, heady, hearsay, heart-expanding, heart-stirring, heart-swelling, heart-thrilling, high-potency, high-powered, high-pressure, high-tension, impartation, imparting, impartment, imperative, implicit, important, impressive, in force, in power, incisive, incontrovertible, indicative, indisputable, inflammatory, influential, intoxicating, inventorying, irrefutable, irresistible, jarring, jolting, maddening, magnetic, marked, material, measurement, memorable, mighty, mighty in battle, mind-blowing, momentous, mordant, moving, narration, narrative, nervous, noble, notable, noteworthy, notification, numbering, numeration, nuncupative, of mark, operative, outstanding, overcoming, overmastering, overpowering, overwhelming, pagination, penetrating, personable, persuasive, perturbing, piercing, piquant, poignant, potent, powerful, prepotent, prestigious, presumptive, probative, prominent, provocative, provoking, publication, puissant, punchy, quantification, quantization, rare, ravishing, recital, recountal, recounting, rehearsal, relation, reliable, remarkable, rememberable, reputable, retelling, review, ruling, salient, satisfactory, satisfying, sensational, sharing, signal, significant, sinewed, sinewy, slashing, solid, soul-stirring, sound, special, spirit-stirring, stimulating, stimulative, stirring, striking, strong, suasive, substantial, suggestive, sure, suspenseful, suspensive, symptomatic, tale-telling, tallying, tantalizing, thrilling, thrilly, transfer, transference, transmission, transmittal, trenchant, troubling, unforgettable, unsettling, upsetting, valid, vigorous, vital, weighty, winning, yarn spinning