Definition of tells

"tells" in the noun sense

1. Tell, William Tell

a Swiss patriot who lived in the early 14th century and who was renowned for his skill as an archer according to legend an Austrian governor compelled him to shoot an apple from his son's head with his crossbow (which he did successfully without mishap)

"tells" 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"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

Princeton University "About WordNet®."
WordNet®. Princeton University. 2010.


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Quotations for tells

Sickness tells us what we are. [ Proverb ]

Nature tells every secret once. [ Emerson ]

And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale. [ Milton ]

He that tells a lie buffets himself. [ Proverb ]

Those evening bells! those evening bells!
How many a tale their music tells.
Of youth, and home, and that sweet time,
When last I heard their soothing chime! [ Tom Moore ]

Credulity tells people we are short-sighted. [ Proverb ]

He that tells a secret is another's servant. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

He that tells his wife is but lately married. [ Proverb ]

There's not a wind but whispers of thy name,
And not a flower that grows beneath the moon,
But in its hues and fragrance tells a tale
Of thee, my love. [ Barry Cornwall ]

He tells me my way, and does not know it himself. [ Proverb ]

Life, unexplored, is hope's perpetual blaze
When past, one long, involved, and darksome maze:
But, that some mighty power controls the whole,
A secret intuition tells the soul. [ William Winter ]

He that tells his wife news is but newly married. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

What your glass tells you will not be told by counsel. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

Hope ever urges on, and tells us tomorrow will be better. [ Tibullus ]

He that shews a passion, tells his enemy where he may hit him. [ Proverb ]

Who has a daring eye tells downright truths and downright lies. [ Lava ter ]

Tangible language, which often tells more falsehoods than truths. [ Abraham Lincoln ]

Foppish dressing tells the world, the outside is the best of the puppet. [ Proverb ]

Cautious age suspects the flattering form, and only credits what experience tells. [ Johnson ]

History tells us of illustrious villains, but there never was an illustrious miser. [ St. Evremond ]

The history of all the world tells us that immoral means will ever intercept good ends. [ Coleridge ]

O, what damned minutes tells he over, who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves! [ William Shakespeare ]

Even a liar tells a hundred truths to one lie: he has to, to make the lie good for anything. [ Henry Ward Beecher ]

One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell that would tell anything. [ Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance ]

The wise man tells not what he knows. It is not prudent to sport with one's head by revealing the king's secrets. [ Saadi ]

As the greatest liar tells more truths than falsehoods, so may it be said of the worst man, that he does more good than evil. [ Dr. Johnson ]

Do your duty, and don't swerve from it. Do that which your conscience tells you to be right, and leave the consequences to God. [ B. R. Haydon ]

He only is great who has the habits of greatness; who, after performing what none in ten thousand could accomplish, passes on like Samson, and tells neither father nor mother of it. [ Lavater ]

To revenge a wrong is easy, usual, and natural, and, as the world thinks, savors of nobleness of mind; but religion teaches the contrary, and tells us it is better to neglect than to requite it. [ J. Beaumont ]

D'Alembert tells us that Voltaire had always lying on his table the Petit Careme of Massillon and the Tragedies of Racine; the former to fix his taste in prose composition, and the latter in poetry. [ Dugald Stewart ]

The tongue tells the thought of one man only, whereas the face expresses a thought of nature itself; so that every one is worth attentive observation, even though every one may not be worth talking to. [ Arthur Schopenhauer ]

Avoid that which an enemy tells you to do; for if you follow his advice, you will smite your knees with the hand of sorrow. If he shows you a road straight as an arrow, turn from it and go the other way. [ Saadi ]

There are two kinds of genius. The first and highest may be said to speak out of the eternal to the present, and must compel its age to understand it; the second understands its age, and tells it what it wishes to be told. [ Lowell ]

Error soon passes away, unless upheld by restraint on thought. History tells us (and the lesson is invaluable) that the physical force which has put down free inquiry has been the main bulwark of the superstitions and illusions of past ages. [ Channing ]

Our opinions are not our own, but in the power of sympathy. If a person tells us a palpable falsehood, we not only dare not contradict him, but we dare hardly disbelieve him to his face. A lie boldly uttered has the effect of truth for the instant. [ Hazlitt ]

Plutarch tells us of an idle and effeminate Etrurian who found fault with the manner in which Themistocles had conducted a recent campaign. What, said the hero in reply, have you, too, something to say about war, who are like the fish that has a sword, but no heart? He is always the severest censor on the merits of others who has the least worth of his own. [ E. L. Magoon ]

As the index tells us the contents of stories and directs to the particular chapter, even so does the outward habit and superficial order of garments (in man or woman) give us a taste of the spirit, and demonstratively point (as it were a manual note from the margin) all the internal quality of the soul; and there cannot be a more evident, palpable, gross manifestation of poor, degenerate, dunghilly blood and breeding than a rude, unpolished, disordered, and slovenly outside. [ Massinger ]

The Christian cemetery is a memorial and a record. It is not a mere field in which the dead are stowed away unknown; it is a touching and beautiful history, written in family burial plots, in mounded graves, in sculptured and inscribed monuments. It tells the story of the past, - not of its institutions, or its wars, or its ideas, but of its individual lives, - of its men and women and children, and of its household. It is silent, but eloquent; it is common, but it is unique. We find no such history elsewhere; there are no records in all the wide world in which we can discover so much that is suggestive, so much that is pathetic and impressive. [ Joseph Anderson ]

tells in Scrabble®

The word tells is playable in Scrabble®, no blanks required.

Scrabble® Letter Score: 5

Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays In The Letters tells:

TELLS
(18)
TELLS
(18)
TELLS
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TELLS
(18)
 

All Scrabble® Plays For The Word tells

TELLS
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The 200 Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays For Words Using The Letters In tells

TELLS
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TELL
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LETS
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tells in Words With Friends™

The word tells is playable in Words With Friends™, no blanks required.

Words With Friends™ Letter Score: 7

Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Play In The Letters tells:

TELLS
(33)
 

All Words With Friends™ Plays For The Word tells

TELLS
(33)
TELLS
(28)
TELLS
(27)
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TELLS
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TELLS
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The 200 Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Plays Using The Letters In tells

TELLS
(33)
TELL
(30)
SELL
(30)
TELLS
(28)
TELLS
(27)
TELLS
(27)
TELLS
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LETS
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LEST
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ELLS
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TELL
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SELL
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ELLS
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LEST
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Words containing the sequence tells

Words that start with tells (1 word)

Words with tells in them (1 word)

Words that end with tells (5 words)

Word Growth involving tells

Shorter words in tells

el ell ells

el ell tell

Longer words containing tells

fortunetells

mistells

retells foretells