What's the difference between tell and telltale?

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.

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.