Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: TALES |
TALESNoun1. Persons added to a jury, commonly from those in or about the courthouse, to make up any deficiency in the number of jurors regularly summoned, being like, or such as, the latter. Syntactically singular1. The writ by which such persons are summoned. |
Date "TALES" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1050. (references) |
Etymology: Tales \Ta"les\, noun. [Latin expression, plural of talis such (persons).]. (references) |
Synonym: TALESSynonym: Literature. (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Disclosure | Divulge, reveal, break; squeal, tattle, sing, rat, snitch; let into the secret; reveal the secrets of the prison house; tell; (inform); breathe, utter, blab, peach; let out, let fall, let drop, let slip, spill the beans, let the cat out of the bag; betray; tell tales, come out of school; come out with; give vent, give utterance to; open the lips, blurt out, vent, whisper about; speak out; (make manifest); make public; unriddle; (find out) a; split. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Fairy tales are real (Stuart Little; writing credit: M. Night Shyamalan) For God's sake, let us gather 'round tonight and tell tales of great kings (Executive Action; writing credit: Dalton Trumbo) When they don't come home, their families are told fairy tales about what happened to them and denied compensation (The Rock; writing credit: David Weisberg; Douglas Cook) I don't mean to be tellin' tales out of school, but there's a feller in there that'll pay you ten dollars if you sing into his can. (O Brother, Where Art Thou?; writing credit: Ethan Coen) Well, I don't want to tell tales out of school or anything (Northern Exposure; writing credit: Khadijah Hashim) | |
Lyrics | Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales and we (Mr. Jones; performing artist: Counting Crows) In the paper today tales of war and of waste (Don't Dream It's Over; performing artist: Crowded House) And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales (The End of the Innocence; performing artist: Don Henley) How soft your fields so green, can whisper tales of gore, (Immigrant song; performing artist: Led Zeppelin) I thought love was only true in fairy tales (I'm A Believer; performing artist: Smash Mouth) | |
Movie/TV Titles | More Tales of the City (1998) Wessex Tales (1973) Tales That Witness Madness (1973) Dead Men Tell No Tales (1971) Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971) | |
Song Titles | Fairy Tales (performing artist: The Rivingtons) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies |
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Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Seven "Old Salts" engaged in telling tall tales aboard USS Enterprise (1877-1909), circa 1887. Photographed by E.H. Hart, New York. Suitable verses from "The Tale of the Gyascutus" are printed below the original photographic image. The entire poem is provided below. Credit: NAVY. |  | On board USS Monongahela, Summer 1899. He "was a spinner of tall tales for the amusement of midshipmen" aboard the ship during their training cruise. Credit: NAVY. |
 | Tales of the Green Beret. As zero hour approaches, a small band of American and South Vietnamese prepares for the challenge of overwhelming enemy odds. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Fairy tales. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Francis Bacon | Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. |
Homer | It is tedious to tell again tales already plainly told. |
John Heywood | To tell tales out of school. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | I had ceased to be a writer of tolerably poor tales and essays, and had become a tolerably good Surveyor of the Customs |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | And they listened while the tales were told, and their participation made the stories great |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | When people awaken during REM sleep, they often describe bizarre and illogical tales " dreams. (references) | |
Economic History | Denmark | The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75), the philosophical essays of Soren Kierkegaard (1813-55), and the short stories of Karen Blixen (penname Isak Dinesen, 1885-1962) have earned international recognition, as have the symphonies of Carl Nielsen (1865-1931). Danish applied art and industrial design have won awards for excellence. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "TALES" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 88.91% of the time. "TALES" is used about 1,279 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (plural) | 88.91% | 1,137 | 6,732 |
| Noun (proper) | 11.09% | 142 | 26,554 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,279 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "TALES": bear tales ♦ carry tales ♦ children's tales ♦ old wives' tales ♦ Tales book ♦ Tales de circumstantibus ♦ tell tales. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "TALES": fairy-tales, folk-tales, tell-tales. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
tales.com veggie | 32 |
tales.com wacky web | 9 |
tales.com timeless | 4 |
tales.com timeless weddings.htm | 4 |
index.htm tales.com timeless | 4 |
tales.net timeless | 3 |
in lost maryland myth tales,legends treasure true | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "TALES"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | tregoj (argue, bear, bespeak, betoken, bring out, connotate, connote, denote, designate, direct, display, establish, evidence, evince, exhibit, expose, express oneself, extend, finger, give away, indicate, infer, make out, manifest, narrate, note, point out, present, proclaim, produce, profess, prove, read, recite, relate, show, show round, spiel, spin out, tell, tell tales, yield), thashetheme (backbite, badinage, chitchat, gossip, grape vine, gup, hearsay, idle gossip, noise, old wives' tales, report, rumor, rumour, scuttlebutt, tale, tittle tattle, tootle, whisper), përralla (old wives' tales). (various references) | |
Arabic | نم (gossip, sneak, snitch, tale, tattle, tell smb. smth., tell tales), وشى (blow the whistle, intersperse, malign, nark, peachy, rat, rubricate, sing, sneak, snitch, tale, tattle, tell, tell on, tell tales, telltale, traduce), حكى حكايات (tell tales). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | разказвам приказки (tell tales), бабини деветини (old wives' tales). (various references) | |
Chinese | 说 (tale). (various references) | |
Czech | seznam porotcù (panel). (various references) | |
Danish | oplaesningssal (room for children tales, story room). (various references) | |
Dutch | leeszaal (room for children tales, story room). (various references) | |
Finnish | kieliä (tell tales), kannella (bear tales, on deck, peach against, tell tales), juoruta (gossip, tell tales). (various references) | |
French | salle des contes (room for children tales), rapporter (take back, tale, talk, tell tales), moucharder (tattle, tell tales), dévoiler (tell tales). (various references) | |
German | Geschichten (stories), Fabeln. (various references) | |
Greek | αναπληρωματικοί ένωρκοι. (various references) | |
Hebrew | ל"לשין (betray, calumniate, inform against, nark, slander, sneak, tell on, tell tales), לרכל (gossip, tell tales, telltale). (various references) | |
Hungarian | tanulságos mesék (cautionary tales), régi emlékeket felidéző történetek (tales redolent of ancient memories), ostoba történetek terjesztője (repeater of idle tales), mesél (narrate, tell tales, to pitch a yarn, to spin a yarn, to tell a story, to yarn, yarn), ez csak mese (these tales are pure fiction), elrettentő eseteket leíró tanulságos mesék (cautionary tales), az egész csak tiszta kitalálás (these tales are pure fiction), az egész csak merő kitalálás (these tales are pure fiction). (various references) | |
Indonesian | mendongengi (tell tales to). (various references) | |
Italian | locale intrattenimento bambini (room for children tales, story room). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 土"話 (tales of one's travels). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | みや'ばなし (tales of one's travels). (various references) | |
Korean | 총계 (Amount, Summing, tale). (various references) | |
Manx | taggloo ny cailleeyn (old wives' tales). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | alestay.(various references) | |
Romanian | povestiri pentru copii (children's tales), astea sânt poveşti (don't tell me tales). (various references) | |
Russian | бабушкины сказки (old wives' tales). (various references) | |
Scottish | seanchaidh (antiquarian, historian, reciter of tales). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | bapske priče (old wives' tales), širiti informacije (tell tales). (various references) | |
Spanish | cuentos. (various references) | |
Swedish | skvallra (blab, blow the gaff, chew the fat, gossip, let on, natter, peach, sneak, talk, tattle, tell, tell tales, tittle tattle), ljuga (lie, tell a lie, tell lies, tell tales), berätta löngaktiga historier (tell tales). (various references) | |
Turkish | dedikodu yapmak (bear tales, carry tales, gossip, talk scandal, tattle, tell tales, tittle tattle, tittletattle, wag one's tongue, whisper). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | ябедничати (sneak, tell tales), розпузкати плітки (tell tales). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Luke Chapter 24, Verse 11 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Kai efanhsan enwpion autwn wsei lhroV ta rhmata autwn kai hpistoun autaiV |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Et visa sunt ante illos sicut deliramentum verba ista et non credebant illis |
| Old English | 990 | West Saxon | And þas word wæron geþuhte beforan him swa woffunng and hig ne gelyfdon him; |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | And these wordis weren seyn bifor hem as madnesse, and thei bileueden not to hem. |
| Renaissance English | 1526 | Tyndale | And their wordes semed vnto them fayned thinges nether beleved they them. |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | But these words seemed foolish to them, and they had no belief in them. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Luke Chapter 24, Verse 11 |
| Cebuano | apan sa ilang pagbati niini, kining mga pulonga daw salimoang lamang, ug sila wala nila toohi, |
| Chinese | 他 們 這 些 話 、 使 ' 以 為 是 胡 言 、 就 不 相 信 。 |
| Croatian | ali njima se te rijeèi prièiniše kao tlapnja, te im ne vjerovahu. |
| Danish | Og disse Ord kom dem for som løs Tale; og de troede dem ikke. |
| Dutch | En haar woorden schenen voor hen als ijdel geklap, en zij geloofden haar niet. |
| Finnish | Mutta näiden puheet näyttivät heistä turhilta, eivätkä he uskoneet heitä. |
| French | Ils tinrent ces discours pour des rêveries, et ils ne crurent pas ces femmes. |
| German | Und es deuchten sie ihre Worte eben, als wären's Märlein, und sie glaubten ihnen nicht. |
| Hungarian | De az õ szavuk csak üres beszédnek látszék azok elõtt; és nem hivének nékik. |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Tetapi rasul-rasul itu menyangka wanita-wanita itu hanya menceritakan yang bukan-bukan. Mereka tidak percaya cerita wanita-wanita itu. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | Tetapi pada perasaan mereka itu adalah perkataan perempuan itu seperti cakap angin sahaja, maka tiadalah mereka itu percaya kepada perempuan itu. |
| Italian | Quelle parole parvero loro come un vaneggiamento e non credettero ad esse. |
| Korean | 사 도 " 은 희 말 이 허 탄 한 " 이 뵈 어 믿 지 아 니 하 나 |
| Maori | A ko te ahua o aua kupu ki ta ratou whakaaro he mea tito noa; kihai i whakaponohia e ratou. |
| Norwegian | og deres ord syntes dem å være løs tale, og de trodde dem ikke. |
| Portuguese | E pareceram-lhes como um delírio as palavras das mulheres e não lhes deram crédito. |
| Rumanian | Cuvintele acestea li se pqreau apostolilor basme, wi nu le credeau. |
| Shuar | Tura Jesusa unuiniamurisha nuwa Tuíniakuisha nekasaiti tu Enentáimtsuk "Wáuruk Tuíniawai" tiarmiayi. |
| Spanish | Pero sus palabras les parecían a ellos locura, y no las creyeron. |
| Swahili | Mitume waliyachukua maneno hayo kama yasiyo na msingi, hivyo hawakuamini. |
| Swedish | Deras ord syntes dock för dessa vara löst tal, och de trodde dem icke. |
| Uma | Aga suro toera uma mpangalai' lolita-ra, ra'uli' lolita to ratamangko-wadi. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "TALES": talesman, talesmen. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "TALES": folktales, stales, tattletales, telltales. (additional references) | |
Words containing "TALES": stalest. (additional references) | |
| |
"TALES" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Ataleh, atleast, atls, Itals, taale, tabes, tadle, taels, taes, tafle, tailess, tajes, talar, talas, talcs, talee, Talei, talen, talens, talese, taley, talia, talic, talir, talis, talle, tallec, tallens, tallet, talls, talos, talqs, tarle, taule, Tawes, tawle, teels, telas, telea, telec, teleg, telek, teleo, teleost, telep, teles, Teleuse, telos, telus, thale, thalers, thales, tilez, tilis, tils, Tilsey, Tkalec, Tlis, tolas, toles, Tolsey, tolus, Tralos, tules, twale, tylees. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "TALES" (pronounced tā"lz) |
| 4 | t ā" l z | curtails, details, entails, tails. |
| 3 | -ā" l z | ails, ales, assails, bails, bales, Brailles, dales, derails, fails, gales, hails, Hales, jails, mails, males, nails, pails, pales, prevails, quails, rails, rales, sails, sales, scales, shales, snails, swails, Swales, trails, travails, unveils, vales, veils, wails, Wales, whales. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: least, setal, slate, stale, steal, stela, taels, teals, tesla. | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-l-s-t" | |
-1 letter: ales, alts, ates, east, eats, etas, lase, last, late, lats, leas, lest, lets, sale, salt, sate, seal, seat, seta, slat, tael, tale, teal, teas, tela, tels. | |
-2 letters: ale, als, alt, ate, eat, els, eta, las, lat, lea, let, sae, sal, sat, sea, sel, set, tae, tas, tea, tel. | |
-3 letters: ae, al, as, at. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-l-s-t" | |
+1 letter: ablest, aglets, alates, alerts, alters, artels, bleats, castle, cleats, deltas, desalt, eclats, elates, estral, exalts, festal, halest, haslet, lamest, lasted, laster, latens, latest, lathes, latkes, lattes, laxest, leasts, lysate, metals, osteal, palest, palets, pastel, petals, plates, pleats, ratels, sallet, salted, salter, saltie, salute, samlet, septal, shelta, slated, slater, slates, slatey, solate, stable, staled, staler, stales, staple, steals, stelae, stelai, stelar, stella, tables, talers, tassel, teasel, tepals, teslas, valets, vestal. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Bible Trace 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
