telling

Having force, or having a marked effect; weighty, effective.

Adjective

  1. Having force, or having a marked effect; weighty, effective.
    • a telling blow
  2. Revealing information; bearing significance.
    • a telling smile
    • But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and...
  3. Serving to convince.
    • telling evidence

Forms

more telling most telling

Derived

untelling tellingly tellingness

Noun

  1. The act of narration.
  2. The disclosure of information.
    • There may he sit and smile, or creep among the ships, or moan and sigh round islands in his great content—the miser lord of wealth in gems and pearls beyond the telling of all fables. - 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward...
  3. Counting, numbering.
  4. Ability to determine.
    • "One white man." said Bill, after a brief inspection. "Out on his line, I s'pose, and there's no tellin' when he'll be back. So we won't wait. We'll just serve notice on him." - 1922, A[rthur] M[urray] Chisholm, A...

Origin

Gerund from the verb tell, from tell + -ing.

Forms

tellings

Synonyms

enumeration

Derived

ain't no telling fortune-telling life-telling storytelling taletelling telling bone telling-to there is no telling truth-telling

Verb

  1. present participle and gerund of tell