What's the difference between show and tell?

Show


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To exhibit or present to view; to place in sight; to display; -- the thing exhibited being the object, and often with an indirect object denoting the person or thing seeing or beholding; as, to show a house; show your colors; shopkeepers show customers goods (show goods to customers).
  • (v. t.) To exhibit to the mental view; to tell; to disclose; to reveal; to make known; as, to show one's designs.
  • (v. t.) Specifically, to make known the way to (a person); hence, to direct; to guide; to asher; to conduct; as, to show a person into a parlor; to show one to the door.
  • (v. t.) To make apparent or clear, as by evidence, testimony, or reasoning; to prove; to explain; also, to manifest; to evince; as, to show the truth of a statement; to show the causes of an event.
  • (v. t.) To bestow; to confer; to afford; as, to show favor.
  • (v. i.) To exhibit or manifest one's self or itself; to appear; to look; to be in appearance; to seem.
  • (v. i.) To have a certain appearance, as well or ill, fit or unfit; to become or suit; to appear.
  • (n.) The act of showing, or bringing to view; exposure to sight; exhibition.
  • (n.) That which os shown, or brought to view; that which is arranged to be seen; a spectacle; an exhibition; as, a traveling show; a cattle show.
  • (n.) Proud or ostentatious display; parade; pomp.
  • (n.) Semblance; likeness; appearance.
  • (n.) False semblance; deceitful appearance; pretense.
  • (n.) A discharge, from the vagina, of mucus streaked with blood, occuring a short time before labor.
  • (n.) A pale blue flame, at the top of a candle flame, indicating the presence of fire damp.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Forty-nine patients (with 83 eyes showing signs of the disease) were followed up for between six months and 12 years.
  • (2) Cancer patients showed abnormally high plasma free tryptophan levels.
  • (3) In contrast, arteries which were exposed to CO showed a higher uptake of cholesterol as compared to their corresponding control.
  • (4) After stimulation with lipopolysaccharide and calcium ionophore A23187, culture supernatants of clones c18A and c29A showed cytotoxic activity against human melanoma A375 Met-Mix and other cell lines which were resistant to the tumor necrosis factor, lymphotoxin and interleukin 1.
  • (5) We also show that proliferation of primary amnion cells is not dependent on a high c-fos expression, suggesting that the function of c-fos is more likely to be associated with other cellular functions in the differentiated amnion cell.
  • (6) These results show that the pathogenic phenotypes of MCF viruses are dissociable from the thymotropic phenotype and depend, at least in part, upon the enhancer sequences.
  • (7) In addition, intravenous injection of complexes into rabbits showed optimal myocardial images with agents of intermediate lipophilicity.
  • (8) These surveys show that campers exposed to mountain stream water are at risk of acquiring giardiasis.
  • (9) In the surface epithelial cells, the basolateral cell surface showed moderate enzymatic activity.
  • (10) These studies show that metabolic activation is necessary for the expression of the mutagenic activity of aflatoxins B1 and G1 in N. crassa.
  • (11) In contrast to previous reports, these tumours were more malignant than osteosarcomas and showed a five-year survival rate of only 4-2 per cent.
  • (12) During and after the infusion of 5HTP, none of the patients showed an increase in anxiety or depressive symptoms, despite the presence of severe side effects.
  • (13) Snooker, which became and remains a fixture in the BBC2 schedules, was chosen for showing because it is the sport in which different shades are most significant.
  • (14) Tests showed the cells survive and function normally in animals and reverse movement problems caused by Parkinson's in monkeys.
  • (15) In this paper, we show representative experiments illustrating some characteristics of the procedure which may have wide application in clinical microbiology.
  • (16) Histological studies showed that the resulting pancreatitis was usually mild to moderate, being severe only in association with sepsis.
  • (17) The PSB dioxygenase system displayed a narrow substrate range: none of 18 sulphonated or non-sulphonated analogues of PSB showed significant substrate-dependent O2 uptake.
  • (18) His son, Karim Makarius, opened the gallery to display some of the legacy bequeathed to him by his father in 2009, as well as the work of other Argentine photographers and artists – currently images by contemporary photographer Facundo de Zuviria are also on show.
  • (19) Furthermore, all of the sera from seven other patients with shock reactions following the topical application of chlorhexidine preparation also showed high RAST counts.
  • (20) They spend about 4.3 minutes of each working hour on a smoking break, the study shows.

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.