Telling

How to spell telling

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce telling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does telling mean?

1. adjectiveRevealing or significant, often showing more than was intended.
2. verbThe present participle of tell: relating, informing, or instructing.

Telling in a sentence

• adjective

  The gap in his story was a telling detail for the auditors.

• verb

  She spent the evening telling the children a long bedtime story.

• adjective

  Her hesitation before answering was quite telling.

• verb

  He kept telling his colleagues about the new schedule.

Where does telling come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English verb tellan, which meant 'to count, reckon, or calculate' before it broadened to mean 'to relate or narrate'. That earlier counting sense survives in expressions like a bank teller and telling the votes, where to tell still means to count one by one. The Germanic root behind it is shared with the German word zahlen (to pay) and erzählen (to relate), and even with the noun 'tale', so a tale was originally something counted out and recounted. The present participle telling came to be used as an adjective in the sense of 'producing a strong effect' or 'revealing more than intended' by the eighteenth century, since a remark that strikes home effectively makes its point count. The spelling is regular, doubling the final consonant of tell before -ing, which keeps the short vowel sound intact.

How the word is built

• tell (Old English tellan: to count, reckon, narrate)
• -ing (suffix forming present participle, gerund, or adjective)