tale

B1 Topic:General Vocabulary

US /ˈteːl/ See IPA manual

Homophones

tail /ˈteːl/

Freq #3841

Meanings

1

noun
A story, especially one about exciting or imaginary events.

Grandma told us a tale about a brave knight.
2

noun
An account or report of something that has happened.

He told us the whole tale of his journey.
3

noun
A piece of gossip or an untrue story used to cause trouble.

Don't believe the tales people tell about her.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a story, especially one... narrative

3 noun · a piece of gossip or an... story

Word family

Forms tales

Derived forms aftertaleblab-talefairy-talefairytalefolktaleforetaletale-bearertale-tellertalebearertalebearingtalebooktaleful

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

fairy tale
a children's story involving fairies, magic, or other imaginary beings

Noun + noun

Proverbs (1)

See all

Dead men tell no tales

Simplified etymology

Tale is an Old English word belonging to the same historical word family as talk and tell.

Etymology

From Middle English tale, from Old English talu (“tale, series, calculation”), from Proto-West Germanic *talu, from Proto-Germanic *talō (“calculation, number”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to reckon, count”). Cognate with West Frisian taal (“speech, language”), 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 δόλος (dólos, “wile, bait”), Albanian ndjell (“to lure”), Northern Kurdish til (“finger”), Old Armenian տող (toł, “row”). Related t…

tale Middle English talu Old English *talu Proto-West Germanic *talō Proto-Germanic *del- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# tale

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈteːl/
**Frequency rank:** 3841

## Meanings
1. A story, especially one about exciting or imaginary events.
2. An account or report of something that has happened.
3. A piece of gossip or an untrue story used to cause trouble.

## Examples
- Grandma told us a tale about a brave knight.
- He told us the whole tale of his journey.
- Don't believe the tales people tell about her.

## Derived Forms
- aftertale
- blab-tale
- fairy-tale
- fairytale
- folktale
- foretale
- tale-bearer
- tale-teller
- talebearer
- talebearing
- talebook
- taleful

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: tale
- Root: talu
- Root: *talu
- Root: *talō
- Root: *del-

## Etymology
From Middle English tale, from Old English talu (“tale, series, calculation”), from Proto-West Germanic *talu, from Proto-Germanic *talō (“calculation, number”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to reckon, count”). Cognate with West Frisian taal (“speech, language”), 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 δόλος (dólos, “wile, bait”), Albanian ndjell (“to lure”), Northern Kurdish til (“finger”), Old Armenian տող (toł, “row”). Related t…

## AI Etymology
Tale is from Middle English tale, from Old English talu (“tale, series, calculation”), from Proto-West Germanic *talu, from Proto-Germanic *talō (“calculation, number”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to reckon, count”). Cognate with West Frisian taal (“speech, language”), 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 δόλος (dólos, “wile, bait”), Albanian ndjell (“to lure”), Northern Kurdish til (“finger”), Old Armenian տող (toł, “row”).

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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