tale

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

tale, n. 

 See Tael.  [1913 Webster]

tale, n. [AS. talu number, speech, narrative; akin to D. taal speech, language, G. zahl number, OHG. zala, Icel. tal, tala, number, speech, Sw. tal, Dan. tal number, tale speech, Goth. talzjan to instruct. Cf. Tell, v. t., Toll a tax, also Talk, v. i.].

•  That which is told; an oral relation or recital; any rehearsal of what has occured; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.  [1913 Webster]

  "We spend our years as a tale that is told."  [1913 Webster]
•  A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration; a count, in distinction from measure or weight; a number reckoned or stated.  [1913 Webster]

  "The ignorant, . . . who measure by tale, and not by weight."  [1913 Webster]

  "And every shepherd tells his tale,
  Under the hawthornn in the dale."  [1913 Webster]

  "In packing, they keep a just tale of the number."  [1913 Webster]
•  A count or declaration.  [1913 Webster]

  "Therefore little tale hath he told
  Of any dream, so holy was his heart."  [1913 Webster]

To tell tale of, to make account of. [Obs.]

Syn. -- Anecdote; story; fable; incident; memoir; relation; account; legend; narrative.

tale, v. i. 

 To tell stories.  Chaucer. Gower.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

tale, n.
1 a narrative or story, esp. fictitious and imaginatively treated.
2 a report of an alleged fact, often malicious or in breach of confidence (all sorts of tales will get about).
3 archaic or literary a number or total (the tale is complete).

Idiom

tale of a tub an idle fiction.

Etymology

OE talu f. Gmc: cf. TELL(1)

THESAURUS

tale

account, aggregate, all, amount, anecdotage, anecdote, back-fence gossip, backbiting, backstabbing, be-all and end-all, belittlement, blague, box score, calumny, canard, cast, chitchat, chronicle, cock-and-bull story, count, defamation, depreciation, difference, disparagement, entirety, enumerate, epic, epos, exaggeration, fabrication, fairy tale, falsehood, falsification, falsity, farfetched story, farrago, fib, fiction, fish story, flam, flimflam, ghost story, gossip, gossiping, gossipmongering, gossipry, groundless rumor, half-truth, history, idle talk, legal fiction, libel, lie, little white lie, mendacity, misrepresentation, myth, narration, narrative, newsmongering, number, numerate, piece of gossip, pious fiction, prevarication, product, quantity, recital, reckoning, record, report, rumor, saga, scandal, score, scuttlebutt, slander, slight stretching, story, sum, sum total, summation, talebearing, taletelling, talk, tall story, tall tale, tally, taradiddle, tattle, tell, the bottom line, the story, the whole story, tittle-tattle, total, totality, tote, trumped-up story, untruth, white lie, whole, x number, yam, yarn

ROGET THESAURUS

tale

Description

N description, account, statement, report, expose, specification, particulars, state of facts, summary of facts, brief, return, catalogue raisonne, guidebook, delineation, sketch, monograph, minute account, detailed particular account, circumstantial account, graphic account, narration, recital, rehearsal, relation, historiography, chronography, historic Muse, Clio, history, biography, autobiography, necrology, obituary, narrative, history, memoir, memorials, annals, saga, tradition, legend, story, tale, historiette, personal narrative, journal, life, adventures, fortunes, experiences, confessions, anecdote, ana, trait, work of fiction, novel, romance, Minerva press, fairy tale, nursery tale, fable, parable, apologue, dime novel, penny dreadful, shilling shocker relator, raconteur, historian, biographer, fabulist, novelist, descriptive, graphic, narrative, epic, suggestive, well-drawn, historic, traditional, traditionary, legendary, anecdotic, storied, described, furor scribendi.

Numeration

N numeration, numbering, pagination, tale, recension, enumeration, summation, reckoning, computation, supputation, calculation, calculus, algorithm, algorism, rhabdology, dactylonomy, measurement, statistics, arithmetic, analysis, algebra, geometry, analytical geometry, fluxions, differential calculus, integral calculus, infinitesimal calculus, calculus of differences, dead reckoning, muster, poll, census, capitation, roll call, recapitulation, account, notation, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, rule of three, practice, equations, extraction of roots, reduction, involution, evolution, estimation, approximation, interpolation, differentiation, integration, abacus, logometer, slide rule, slipstick, tallies, Napier's bones, calculating machine, difference engine, suan- pan, adding machine, cash register, electronic calculator, calculator, computer, arithmetician, calculator, abacist, algebraist, mathematician, statistician, geometer, programmer, accountant, auditor, numeral, numerical, arithmetical, analytic, algebraic, statistical, numerable, computable, calculable, commensurable, commensurate, incommensurable, incommensurate, innumerable, unfathomable, infinite, quantitatively, arithmetically, measurably, in numbers.