What's the difference between tale and telltale?

Tale


Definition:

  • (n.) See Tael.
  • (v. i.) That which is told; an oral relation or recital; any rehearsal of what has occured; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
  • (v. i.) A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration; a count, in distinction from measure or weight; a number reckoned or stated.
  • (v. i.) A count or declaration.
  • (v. i.) To tell stories.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There were soon tales of claimants dying after having had money withdrawn, but the real administrative problem was the explosion of appeals, which very often succeeded because many medical problems were being routinely ignored at the earlier stage.
  • (2) Her story is an incredible tale of triumph over tragedy: a tormented childhood during China's Cultural Revolution, detention and forced exile after exposing female infanticide – then glittering success as the head of a major US technology firm.
  • (3) Such tales of publicly subsidised private profits very much fit with the wider picture of relations between the City and the nation.
  • (4) The curiously double nature of the virgin in this tale, her purity versus her duplicity, seems unquestionably related to the infantile split mother, as elucidated by Klein--a connection explored in an earlier paper.
  • (5) Mr Bae stars in a popular drama, Winter Sonata, a tale of rekindled puppy love that has left many Japanese women hankering for an age when their own men were as sensitive and attentive as the Korean actor.
  • (6) The fairytales – which have been distributed by leaflet to universities around Singapore – include versions of Cinderella, the Three Little Pigs, Rapunzel and Snow White, each involving a reworked tale that relates to fertility, sex or marriage, and a resulting moral.
  • (7) Tales invites you to be straight or gay or a bit of both, or even a 93-year-old transsexual.
  • (8) The disappointing weather at Easter left beaches deserted but some Britons, who were determined to enjoy the outdoors this time round, have already had their plans thwarted by the weather, taking to websites such as ukcampsite.co.uk to swap tales of woe, such as farmers calling to cancel bookings because sites were waterlogged.
  • (9) He says there are many optimistic tales to tell – migrant families, he says, are helping to drive up standards in local schools – but such stories tend to get lost in an online world that has precious little interest in them.
  • (10) "We truly are living through a tale of two Britains; while those at the top of the tree may be benefiting from the green shoots of economic recovery, life on the ground for the poorest is getting tougher."
  • (11) We're not just disembodied wombs in jars, like in Tales of the Unexpected.
  • (12) He spent his day with children who could not speak or hear, and so I could hardly expect him to bring home any interesting tales.
  • (13) What goes on in The Handmaid’s Tale [the overthrow of the US government by a theocratic dictatorship that suppresses the rights of women] is actually confined to what used to be the United States.
  • (14) When Japan was finally opened to western influence by Commodore Perry in 1854, Shakespeare's works – via Lamb's Tales – followed closely behind.
  • (15) Today Savina said she did not think her experience was a cautionary tale for journalists working on the Lebedev-owned Evening Standard, who might be anxious about their jobs.
  • (16) Mood Indigo (18 July) Arguably the most French movie ever made, Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou are quite adorable as fairy tale lovers in Michel Gondry's adaptation of Boris Vian's Froth on the Daydream.
  • (17) McQueen told this tale several times – the words varied from “McQueen was here” to more profane messages, between tellings – and so, years later, Anderson & Sheppard asked the prince’s valet for the suits of that era back, in order to examine the linings.
  • (18) No true evangelical ought to be tempted to give such tales any credence whatsoever, no matter how popular they become,” Johnson wrote.
  • (19) Photograph: Getty So that was the grand import of the producer’s vision, realised on an unprecedented scale and to eventual rightful acclaim: despite Gagarin and the rest, Americans in particular (and then Australia, and Britain) became transfixed by all the unfolding tales and testimonies.
  • (20) Unlike a similar tale across Stanley Park recently, when Kevin Mirallas ousted Leighton Baines and missed from the spot, Balotelli coolly sent Cenk Gonen the wrong way and Liverpool were reprieved.

Telltale


Definition:

  • (a.) Telling tales; babbling.
  • (n.) One who officiously communicates information of the private concerns of others; one who tells that which prudence should suppress.
  • (n.) A movable piece of ivory, lead, or other material, connected with the bellows of an organ, that gives notice, by its position, when the wind is exhausted.
  • (n.) A mechanical attachment to the steering wheel, which, in the absence of a tiller, shows the position of the helm.
  • (n.) A compass in the cabin of a vessel, usually placed where the captain can see it at all hours, and thus inform himself of the vessel's course.
  • (n.) A machine or contrivance for indicating or recording something, particularly for keeping a check upon employees, as factory hands, watchmen, drivers, check takers, and the like, by revealing to their employers what they have done or omitted.
  • (n.) The tattler. See Tattler.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) NPR reported that investigators have not found telltale signs associated with Islamist radicalization , such as a change in mosques or abrupt shifts in behavior or family associations.
  • (2) The goal of aesthetic surgery is to avoid the telltale signs of surgery and to help the patient attain a youthful and energetic appearance for his or her age bracket.
  • (3) But a staff member wearing the telltale red ID pass but dressed in a shirt and tie rather than high-vis waistcoat – he would only say his role was "management" – took a different view.
  • (4) Water bottles, sweet wrappers, sanitary towels and footprints are telltale signs, as is a bivouac made from bushes to shelter the migrants from the heat of the day so they can continue their journey at night.
  • (5) When a repair technician arrived he couldn’t believe his eyes: knee-deep at the bottom of the shaft were hundreds of envelopes, the vessels for bribes to doctors who then dispensed with the telltale fakelakia .
  • (6) The method, established by Henry Ford Behavioral Health Services in 2001, is based on a clear principle: prevention, or the simple idea that suicide can be prevented if telltale signs leading up to it – including depression – are screened for in a mass, cohesive and coordinated fashion.
  • (7) Surgery for gynecomastia is primarily aimed at the complete removal of the breast tissue and the reconstruction of the normal breast and chest contour while leaving minimal telltale signs of the surgery.
  • (8) In a telltale sign that May was marking out territory for a possible future leadership bid, she defined what she called "the three pillars of Conservatism" – security, freedom and opportunity.
  • (9) A group of songbirds may have avoided a devastating storm by fleeing their US breeding grounds after detecting telltale infrasound waves.
  • (10) Gale Crater was chosen because its landscape shows the telltale signs of an ancient ocean.
  • (11) This is a town where the men have the telltale signs of the seriously rich.
  • (12) To find ways of sharing their enthusiasm and gifts with our communities, above all in works of mercy and concern for others?” Mother of disabled child kissed by pope applauds Francis's 'love for everybody' Read more At the barricades, the ebullient crowd mingled with police, national guardsmen in fatigues, and wary agents from the secret service and FBI, in suits save for telltale holsters, badges and microphones.
  • (13) The telltale signs could be as innocuous-seeming as “a bit of a headache or just feeling a little bit unwell”.
  • (14) The first telltale sign is when you start to feel first disconcerted and then just faintly exhausted by arguments about the correct response to bog-standard but still irritating incidents of everyday sexism.
  • (15) GAMES The Walking Dead: Season Two (Free + IAP) I can't speak highly enough of Telltale Games' work with The Walking Dead on mobile: it's made gripping, atmospheric classics.
  • (16) The subjective restlessness of akathisia is usually accompanied by telltale foot movements: rocking from foot to foot while standing or walking on the spot.
  • (17) She points to evidence that such a switch may be near: The top of any market always has telltale signs.
  • (18) Lesions of the aorta also affect the surrounding structures, providing telltale signs of the overall situation.
  • (19) The living room of Vicky Holliday and her partner Keith Newell’s home, in a quiet cul-de-sac in High Wycombe, has all the telltale signs of new parenthood: multicoloured baby mat, cuddly toys, photos of the proud parents with their newborn baby.
  • (20) Schoolchildren could get involved to record how telltale words such as bath are pronounced in their area, Ranft says.