tell🔊

(outside of idioms) To count, reckon, or enumerate.

(ditransitive) To narrate, to recount.

(ditransitive) To convey by speech; to say.

To instruct or inform.

To order; to direct, to say to someone.

To discern, notice, identify or distinguish.

To reveal.

To be revealed.

To have an effect, especially a noticeable one; to be apparent, to be demonstrated.

To use (beads or similar objects) as an aid to prayer.

(childish) To inform someone in authority about a wrongdoing. +

To reveal information in prose through outright expository statement — contrasted with ''show''.

A reflexive, often habitual behavior, {{non-gloss|especially}} one occurring in a context that often features attempts at deception by persons under psychological stress (such as a poker game or police interrogation), that reveals information that the person exhibiting the behavior is attempting to withhold.

(informal) A giveaway; something that unintentionally reveals or hints at a secret.

(archaic) That which is told; a tale or account.

(internet) A private message to an individual in a chat room; a whisper.

(Q755017)(archaeology) A hill or mound, originally and especially in the Middle East, over or consisting of the ruins of ancient settlements.