tale

SayTAYLUS/ˈteɪl//ˈteːl/

9 meanings of tale

1
nouncountable
A spoken or written account of events, real or imagined; a narrative or story, including a particular person's version of what happened.
She wove a tale of adventure that held the whole room spellbound.
Folk tales passed down through generations often carry a hidden lesson.
UsageUsually tell a tale, and common in fairy tale and folk tale. It sounds more literary than story.
Similarstory, narrative, account
Note
The word still pairs naturally with tell: Chaucer's pilgrims tell tales on the road to Canterbury in The Canterbury Tales. It also suits folk material, as in Asbjørnsen's Folk and Fairy Tales.
2
false rumornouncountable
A report of some asserted fact, often idle or malicious; a piece of gossip, slander, or an outright lie.
She dismissed the tale as jealous gossip from a rival.
The tabloid printed tales that ruined more than one reputation.
UsageSet phrase: tell tales, meaning spread damaging stories about someone, often said to children.
Similarrumor, story, lie, falsehood
Note
Here the story turns suspect: rumor, gossip, slander or a plain lie. A tale of this kind also travels. W. B. Maxwell's The Mirror and the Lamp (1918) worries about "the tale running round" that a rich person has arrived.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
W. B. Maxwell wrote The Mirror and the Lamp, published in 1918. en.wikipedia.org
The novel contains “the tale running round” in a character's concern that news of a rich person's arrival will spread. en.wiktionary.org
3
nounarchaiccountable
A number or total of things, especially one arrived at by counting; a tally, or a fixed quota to be supplied.
They proceeded with some rigour, these Custodiars; took written inventories, clapt-on seals, exacted everywhere strict tale and measure
1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present
Note
The counting meaning sits closest to the root: Old English talu, from a Germanic word for "calculation, number" and an Indo-European root meaning "to reckon, count." Its natural phrase is by tale, set against weight or measure. Richard Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity scorns those "who measure by tale, and not by weight," and Thomas Carlyle (1843) still writes of "strict tale and measure." The same root runs under the storytelling meaning.

Less common meanings

4
verbobsolete
To speak or discourse; to tell tales.
Note
A separate word from the noun, though it grew from the same root. Old English talian meant "to count, calculate, reckon," and here the verb has moved from counting to talking.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
The verb has a separate history from the noun: the verb descends from talian, whereas the noun descends from talu. en.wiktionary.org
The verb and noun share an ancestral root. en.wiktionary.org
Old English talian meant to count, calculate or reckon; the descendant verb also acquired the speaking sense. en.wiktionary.org
5
nounobsolete
The regard, estimation, or heed in which a person or thing is held.
Note
An obsolete sense that turns counting into judgment: the account you take of someone. It survived in phrases of valuing, much as we still say we set store by a thing.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
Tale had an obsolete sense meaning account, estimation, regard, or heed. en.wiktionary.org
6
nounobsolete
Speech or talk; the act of speaking, or a statement or piece of conversation.
7
nounobsolete
In law, a formal declaration or count stating the plaintiff's case against the defendant.
Note
Old legal vocabulary, now obsolete. In common-law pleading, the tale was the plaintiff's declaration, the formal statement of the claim. It was replaced by the very words that define it, count and declaration. Count is a fitting successor, since it keeps the word's ancient link between reckoning and telling.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
The legal sense of tale is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
In common-law pleading, tale named the plaintiff's statement of the claim; count and declaration subsequently served as its names. avalon.law.yale.edu
Count also historically connects numerical reckoning with telling a story. en.wiktionary.org
8
nounslang
The fraudulent opportunity a confidence trickster dangles before the mark to draw them into the scheme.
9
verbdialectalScotland
To reckon or consider someone to have or possess something.

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–3, 5–7

This comes from Middle English tale, from Old English talu ('tale, series, calculation'), going back through Proto-Germanic *talō ('calculation, number') to a Proto-Indo-European root *del- ('to reckon, count'). It is related to tell and talk, and is cognate with Dutch taal ('language') and German Zahl ('number').

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

Tale comes through Middle English tale from Old English talu, meaning 'tale, series, calculation'. en.wiktionary.org
Old English talu descends from Proto-Germanic *talō, meaning 'calculation, number'. en.wiktionary.org
The ancestry is traced to Proto-Indo-European *del-, meaning 'to reckon, count'. en.wiktionary.org
Tale is etymologically related to tell. en.wiktionary.org
Tale is etymologically related to talk. en.wiktionary.org
Tale is cognate with Dutch taal, meaning 'language'. en.wiktionary.org
Tale is cognate with German Zahl, meaning 'number'. en.wiktionary.org

Meaning 4

The Proto-Indo-European root *del- ('to count, reckon, calculate') led to Proto-Germanic *talōną ('to count') and Old English talian ('to count, calculate, reckon'), which became Middle English talen. German zahlen ('to pay') and Swedish tala ('to speak') are cognates.