Loading page
say it: TEL-ing
telling is a noun and adjective meaning "an act of narration". It carries 6 recorded senses.
an act of narration
“he was the hero according to his own relation”
“his endless recounting of the incident eventually became unbearable”
informing by words
disclosing information or giving evidence about another
disclosing unintentionally something concealed
“a telling smile”
“a telltale panel of lights”
“a telltale patch of oil on the water marked where the boat went down”
powerfully persuasive
“a cogent argument”
“a telling presentation”
“a weighty argument”
producing a strong effect
“gave an impressive performance as Othello”
“a telling gesture”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for telling come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.