Tale Teɪl Story Love Noun Coming Of Age/Morality Classic Betrayal

• a coming-of-age/morality tale
• the story is a classic tale of love and betrayal.
• dickens’ ‘a tale of two cities’
• his latest book is a delightful children’s tale about talking animals.

tale

1. a story created using the imagination, especially one that is full of action and adventure
• SEE ALSO fairy tale
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/fairy-tale_1
• a coming-of-age/morality tale
• The story is a classic tale of love and betrayal.
• Dickens’ ‘A Tale of Two Cities’
• His latest book is a delightful children’s tale about talking animals.

Extra Examples

• It's a moral tale about a baker and a shoemaker.
• a dark tale of sexual obsession
• a tale about a hungry snake
• a tale set in 19th-century Moscow
• an epic tale of courage and heroism
• tales of adventure
• the curious tale of the man who sold his hair
• the rags-to-riches tale of an orphan who becomes a star
2. an exciting spoken description of an event, which may not be completely true
• I love listening to his tales of life at sea.
• I've heard tales of people seeing ghosts in that house.
• She regaled us with tales of her wild youth.
• The team's tale of woe continued on Saturday (= they lost another match).
• Her experiences provide a cautionary tale (= a warning) for us all.

Extra Examples

• She was tired of hearing the same dreary tale of drunkenness and violence.
• the sorry tale of his marriage breakdown
3. to survive a difficult or dangerous experience so that you can tell others what really happened
4. an old idea or belief that people now know is not correct
5. to give some information that is different from what you expect or have been told
• These drugs are widely believed to be effective medications. The data, however, tell a different story.
6. to explain itself, without needing any further explanation or comment
• Her face told its own story.
7. to tell somebody about something that another person has done wrong
• RELATED NOUN telltale
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/telltale_1

Word Origin

• Old English talu ‘telling, something told’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch taal ‘speech’ and German Zahl ‘number’, also to tell.