🗣️ To say 👆 To order 📖 To narrate 🚨 To inform on 👁️ To recognize

to tell

∞ 1.8

Know from signs that something is true

verb
/tɛl/

: distinguir

So by touch you can tell which one is which.
tell them apart
too early to tell
hard to tell

So you, you can't tell what's going to be next.

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Examples

But Washington is utterly unable to tell the good guys from the bad in this struggle.

Academic text (1999)
What's not there will tell me what's missing.
The train on my dress, as you can tell, is large.
And that guy you can probably tell is me.
How can I tell if my soil is dead?

MIgardener
Even I can tell the air is getting thin.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
I wanted the job badly and could tell I had a chance of getting it.

Fiction book (1990)
Colours of the stones tell of when they were built.
Study of these clouds can therefore tell us a lot about the evolution of galaxies over time.

Academic text (1999)
By examining the fingerprints, the detective could tell what had happened at the crime scene.

Synonyms

to know

vsto tell

∞ 1.0

To have information about something

focuses on discerning or becoming aware rather than possessing facts

to perceive

vsto tell

369 3.0

To become aware of something in your mind and understand it

is about recognizing or understanding rather than already holding the information

Antonyms

to ignore

∞ 1.0

Choose not to pay attention to someone or something

to overlook

243 2.9

To not notice someone or something you should see

Idioms

tell you the truth

Informal

227 4.5

Say you are being honest before you speak

let me tell you

Informal

64 4.4

To start a story or show that what follows is important

to tell the truth

Informal

48 3.2

To say something that is true even if it is surprising

time will tell

9 3.3

What happens becomes clear later

pray tell

Informal

7 8.8

A polite, often joking way to ask for information after a surprising statement

to tell a tale

3 3.5

Say a story about something that happened or show signs of it

to tell tales out of school

Informal

1 8.4

To tell secrets about someone to other people

does Macy's tell Gimbel's?

Archaic

9.9

A question people use to show someone would not tell a rival or that something will not happen

piss on my leg and tell me it's raining

Offensive

9.9

To lie to someone in an obvious way while expecting them to believe it

to tell it to the judge

Informal

8.7

Make an excuse that nobody believes and only a judge cares about

to tell it to the marines

Archaic

9.6

Say you do not believe someone's story

to tell its own tale

7.2

To show its history without using words

to tell someone where to shove it

Offensive

9.9

Rudely say to someone that you want them to go away

Phrasal Verbs

to tell the truth

814 2.7

Say what really happened without hiding facts or lying

to tell a story

84 1.1

To describe things that happened, real or made up, to other people

to tell stories

73 1.4

Talk about events, real or imagined, to other people

to tell all

Literature

47 5.6

Say all private things about a person or event

to tell apart

41 3.0

To notice a difference between two similar things

to tell on

Informal

35 4.4

To report to a person in charge that someone did something wrong so they get in trouble

to tell off

Informal

13 4.2

To speak angrily to someone for doing something wrong

to tell fortunes

4 7.6

Say what will happen to someone by reading palms, cards, or tea leaves

to tell on

1 6.2

To hurt the body or mind over time

Compounds

tell-all book

Literature

6 4.7

A book that reveals private details about people

How Clear

to tell

∞ 1.8

to recognize

∞ 1.4

to perceive

83 3.7

to see

∞ 1.0

to notice

∞ 1.0

glimpse

69 3.2

Surface Forms

tell infinitive

telling present participle

tells third person singular

told past

told past participle

Etymology

Tell comes from old English tellan which also meant 'to reckon' or 'work out', so when you say you can tell someone is nervous you mean you can 'work out' or notice it. That's why tell can mean to recognise or perceive something.