DictionaryAI

telling

TEL-ing/ˈtɛlɪŋ/

Noun pluraltellings

7 meanings of telling

Practice

  1. 1
    meaningfuladjective
    Revealing information and bearing significance.

    The detective noticed a telling detail in the suspect's story.

    Their reluctance to answer the question was telling.

    UsageOften in it is telling that + clause, or after a linking verb: their silence was telling.

    Similarrevealing, significant, meaningful

    Oppositeinsignificant, meaningless

  2. 2
    speaking toverb
    Present participle of tell.

    The witness is telling investigators everything she saw.

    By telling the truth, he avoided greater trouble.

    Note

    Every meaning of tell passes through this -ing form, from narrating and ordering to counting and discerning. The same spelling also works as a gerund (telling the truth is hard) and has settled into adjectives and nouns of its own. A quick test separates them: if it takes an object, as in telling investigators everything, it is still the verb; if it accepts more or most, as in a more telling detail, it has become an adjective.

  3. 3
    nouncountable or uncountable
    The act of narrating or relating a story to an audience.

    In the telling, the journey sounded far more dangerous than it really was.

    The careful telling of events helped the jury follow what happened.

    UsageOften in in the telling: a story that grows in the telling. One story can have many tellings.

    Similarnarration, recounting, account

  4. 4
    knowingnoununcountable
    The ability to determine or know something with certainty.

    There is no telling how the market will react to the announcement.

    With the trail washed out, there was no telling which path was safe.

    UsageUsually in there is no telling + a question word: there's no telling when he'll be back.

    Similarknowing, saying

    Note

    This sense lives almost entirely in the negative: there is no telling, which in speech is often clipped to no tellin', as in A. M. Chisholm's western A Thousand a Plate. The phrase declares that no reliable guess can be made.

Less common meanings

  1. 5
    forcefuladjective
    Having a strong or decisive effect; forceful and convincing.

    She landed a telling blow in the final round.

    His telling argument changed the committee's vote.

    UsageUsually before nouns like blow, point or argument: a telling blow does real damage.

    Note

    Here the word is about impact. A telling blow does real damage; it does not give anything away. That separates it from the "revealing" meaning, where a telling smile shows what someone feels. Ask whether the thing struck hard or let something slip. A phrase like a telling remark can lean either way, and context has to decide.

  2. 6
    noununcountable
    The act of disclosing or revealing information that was not previously known.

    The telling of classified details led to his dismissal.

    The family had kept the adoption a secret for years, and when the telling finally came, it was gentler than anyone had feared.

    UsageUsed for revealing information, as in the telling of a secret; disclosure is a common alternative.

    Similardisclosure, revelation

    Oppositeconcealment

    Note

    The disclosure sense puts the stress on what was hidden: the telling of a secret is about the secret getting out, not about how well a story is told. Keep it apart from the storytelling sense, where the telling is the narration itself and can be done well or badly.

  3. 7
    countingnounarchaicuncountable
    The act of counting or numbering things.
    Note

    An archaic sense, but not a vanished one. The counting meaning of tell survives in teller, the person who counts votes or money, and in the phrase all told, meaning "in total." Outside fixed uses like these, telling for counting reads as deliberately old-fashioned. Use it for period color; otherwise, counting says the same thing plainly.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

telling is a form of tell

tell, verb: To say something to someone in words, such as a fact, an explanation, the truth or a lie, or how to do something. Full entry

Forms
telltells he/she/ittelling -ing formtold past tense, past participle
Spelling
tell → telling: add -ing

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of telling apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

The gerund of the verb "tell," formed from "tell" plus the suffix "-ing."

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts