Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Language: Old English
Origin: talu

tale

 noun
     
Related topics: Literature, Folklore
tale W3 [countable]
1AL a story about exciting imaginary events
tale of
tales of adventure
a book of old Japanese folk tales (=traditional stories)
a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen
a cautionary tale (=one that is told to warn people about the dangers of something )
2 a description of interesting or exciting things that happened to someone, often one which is not completely true about every detail
tale of/about
tales of her life in post-war Berlin
tale of/about how
He was in the middle of telling me a long tale about how he once met the Redskins' manager.
3

tell tales

British English to tell someone in authority about something wrong that someone else has done [= tattle American English]
tell tales to
Don't go telling tales to the teacher!
4

tale of woe

a) a description of events that made you unhappy
b) a series of bad things that happened to someone:
The England team's tale of woe continued, and they lost the next three games.
➔ fairy tale

; ➔ old wives' tale

at old (24)
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

Dictionary pictures of the day
Do you know what each of these is called?
What is the word for picture 1? What is the word for picture 2? What is the word for picture 3? What is the word for picture 4?
Click on any of the pictures above to find out what it is called.

Explore our topic dictionary

Browse the dictionary