- present participle of tell.
adjective
-
having a marked effect or impact
a telling blow
-
revealing
a telling smile
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of telling
Explanation
Something that's telling is either significant,or it reveals information. Getting twice as much allowance will have a telling effect on your ability to buy new books. When it comes to economics, a telling indicator of a country's state is how much money its citizens spend each month. And you can see that a movie has had a telling effect on its audience if it leaves them all weeping. If you reveal something without meaning to, that's telling as well: "The look on his face was telling." This adjective dates from the mid-1800s, from the verb tell and its sense of "to reveal or disclose."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
However, when Duhamel first purchased the property, he admitted that it was in a very rustic state, telling Country Living in April 2025 that the cabin didn’t have plumbing for many years.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 1, 2026
Xi himself has often urged ethnic minorities to integrate more, telling them to "hug tightly like pomegranate seeds" to create a stronger China.
From BBC • Jul. 1, 2026
"We also started to see unscrupulous real estate agents telling people that they could secure a visa simply by purchasing property in Japan," he said.
From Barron's • Jul. 1, 2026
The biggest appeal of these lowbrow collections—one reader recalls a co-worker telling his kids that souvenir was French for crap—are instant memories.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 1, 2026
And telling Ma that I was going to the movies with James was my cover.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
