What's the difference between describe and tell?

Describe


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To represent by drawing; to draw a plan of; to delineate; to trace or mark out; as, to describe a circle by the compasses; a torch waved about the head in such a way as to describe a circle.
  • (v. t.) To represent by words written or spoken; to give an account of; to make known to others by words or signs; as, the geographer describes countries and cities.
  • (v. t.) To distribute into parts, groups, or classes; to mark off; to class.
  • (v. i.) To use the faculty of describing; to give a description; as, Milton describes with uncommon force and beauty.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Indicators for evaluation and monitoring and outcome measures are described within the context of health service management to describe control measure output in terms of community effectiveness.
  • (2) All transplants were performed using standard techniques, the operation for the two groups differing only as described above.
  • (3) In January 2011, the Nobel peace prize laureate was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for what officials initially described as tests but what turned out to be an acute respiratory infection .
  • (4) The taxonomic relationship of strains H4-14 and 25a with previously described Xanthobacter strains was studied by numerical classification.
  • (5) Models able to describe the events of cellular growth and division and the dynamics of cell populations are useful for the understanding of functional control mechanisms and for the theoretical support for automated analysis of flow cytometric data and of cell volume distributions.
  • (6) The testing of other models and their failure to describe the kinetic observations are discussed.
  • (7) A group I subset (six animals), for which predominant cultivable microbiota was described, had a mean GI of 2.4.
  • (8) On the basis of 180 interventions, they describe in detail the use of fibrin glue in myringo- and tympanoplasty for correct fixing of grafts.
  • (9) Local embolism, vertebral distal-stump embolism, the dynamics of hemorrhagic infarction and embolus-in-transit are briefly described.
  • (10) This article describes a number of syndromes affecting the nail unit.
  • (11) King also described how representatives of every country at this month's G7 meeting in Canada seemed to be relying on an export-led recovery to revive their economies.
  • (12) Some commentators have described his ship, now facing more delays after a decade in development, as little more than a Heath Robinson machine.
  • (13) The small units described here could be inhibitory interneurons which convert the excitatory response of large units into inhibition.
  • (14) A disease in an IgD (lambda) plasmocytoma is described, where after therapy with Alkeran and prednisone a disappearance of all clinical and laboratory findings indicating an activity could be observed.
  • (15) These authors, therefore, conclude that this modified surgical approach is a viable alternative to the previously described procedures for resistant metatarsus adductus.
  • (16) It was the purpose of the present study to describe the normal pattern of the growth sites of the nasal septum according to age and sex by histological and microradiographical examination of human autopsy material.
  • (17) Each profile is described by a simple sequence of band transitions (BT-sequence).
  • (18) After a discussion of the therapeutic relationship, several coping strategies which have been used successfully by many women are described and therapeutic applications are offered.
  • (19) The article describes an unusual case with development of a right anterior mediastinal mass after bypass surgery with internal mammary artery grafts.
  • (20) One rare case of blind-ending branch originating in the upper third of the ureter are described.

Tell


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To mention one by one, or piece by piece; to recount; to enumerate; to reckon; to number; to count; as, to tell money.
  • (v. t.) To utter or recite in detail; to give an account of; to narrate.
  • (v. t.) To make known; to publish; to disclose; to divulge.
  • (v. t.) To give instruction to; to make report to; to acquaint; to teach; to inform.
  • (v. t.) To order; to request; to command.
  • (v. t.) To discern so as to report; to ascertain by observing; to find out; to discover; as, I can not tell where one color ends and the other begins.
  • (v. t.) To make account of; to regard; to reckon; to value; to estimate.
  • (v. i.) To give an account; to make report.
  • (v. i.) To take effect; to produce a marked effect; as, every shot tells; every expression tells.
  • (n.) That which is told; tale; account.
  • (n.) A hill or mound.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Michael James, 52, from Tower Hamlets Three days after telling his landlord that the flat upstairs was a deathtrap, Michael James was handed an eviction notice.
  • (2) In platform shoes to emulate Johnson's height, and with the aid of prosthetic earlobes, Cranston becomes the 36th president: he bullies and cajoles, flatters and snarls and barks, tells dirty jokes or glows with idealism as required, and delivers the famous "Johnson treatment" to everyone from Martin Luther King to the racist Alabama governor George Wallace.
  • (3) Today’s figures tell us little about the timing of the first increase in interest rates, which will depend on bigger picture news on domestic growth, pay trends and perceived downside risks in the global economy,” he said.
  • (4) Anytime they feel parts of the Basic Law are not up to their current standards of political correctness, they will change it and tell Hong Kong courts to obey.
  • (5) "With hyperspectral imaging, you can tell the chemical content of a cake just by taking a photo of it.
  • (6) I think he had been saying all season that with three or four games to go he will tell us where we are.
  • (7) I can see you use humour as a defence mechanism, so in return I could just tell you that if he's massively rich or famous and you've decided you'll put up with it to please him, you'll eventually discover it's not worth it.
  • (8) Are you ready to vote?” is the battle cry, and even the most superficial of glances at the statistics tells why.
  • (9) But what they take for a witticism might very well be true; most of Ellis's novels tell more or less the same story, about the same alienated ennui, and maybe they really are nothing more than the fictionalised diaries of an unremarkably unhappy man.
  • (10) On Friday, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry appeared to confirm those fears, telling reporters that the joint declaration, a deal negotiated by London and Beijing guaranteeing Hong Kong’s way of life for 50 years, “was a historical document that no longer had any practical significance”.
  • (11) Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall tried to liven things up, but there are only so many ways to tell us to be nice to chickens.
  • (12) David Hamilton tells me: “The days of westerners leading expeditions to Nepal will pass.
  • (13) If Del Bosque really want to win this World Cup thingymebob, then he has got to tell Iker Casillas that the jig is up, correct?
  • (14) Will African film-makers tell those kind of films differently?
  • (15) July 7, 2016 Verified account A blue tick that tells you the user is either an A-list celebrity, a respected authority on an important subject or a BuzzFeed employee.
  • (16) The education secretary's wife, Sarah Vine, a columnist, said her son William, nine, and daughter Beatrice, 11, now realise how much their father is hated for his position in government because other children tell them in the playground.
  • (17) You can tell them that Deutsche Bank remains absolutely rock solid, given our strong capital and risk position.
  • (18) The debate certainly hit upon a larger issue: the tendency for people in positions of social and cultural power to tell the stories of minorities for them, rather than allowing minority communities to speak for themselves.
  • (19) In saying what he did, he was not telling any frequent flyer something they didn't already know, and he was not protesting about any newly adopted measures.
  • (20) Blight responded with a hypothetical, telling Ludlam if the ASD asked a foreign agency to get material about Australian citizens it could not access under Australian law, the IGIS would know about it and flag it in its annual report.