"telling" in the noun sense
1. relation, telling, recounting
an act of narration
"he was the hero according to his own relation"
"his endless recounting of the incident eventually became unbearable"
2. telling, apprisal, notification
informing by words
3. tattle, singing, telling
disclosing information or giving evidence about another
"telling" in the verb sense
1. state, say, tell
express in words
"He said that he wanted to marry her"
"tell me what is bothering you"
"state your opinion"
"state your name"
2. tell
let something be known
"Tell them that you will be late"
3. tell, narrate, recount, recite
narrate or give a detailed account of
"Tell what happened"
"The father told a story to his child"
4. order, tell, enjoin, say
give instructions to or direct somebody to do something with authority
"I said to him to go home"
"She ordered him to do the shopping"
"The mother told the child to get dressed"
5. tell
discern or comprehend
"He could tell that she was unhappy"
6. assure, tell
inform positively and with certainty and confidence
"I tell you that man is a crook!"
7. tell, evidence
give evidence
"he was telling on all his former colleague"
8. distinguish, separate, differentiate, secern, secernate, severalize, severalise, tell, tell apart
mark as different
"We distinguish several kinds of maple"
"telling" in the adjective sense
1. revealing, telling, telltale
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"
2. cogent, telling, weighty
powerfully persuasive
"a cogent argument"
"a telling presentation"
"a weighty argument"
3. impressive, telling
producing a strong effect
"gave an impressive performance as Othello"
"a telling gesture"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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