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noun

telling

an act of narration

In a sentence

Six example sentences with telling, each labelled with its topic.

  • In the earliest telling of the flood story, preserved on clay tablets, the hero survives by building an enormous boat.

    Literature

  • Each telling of the Annunciation in Sienese painting rearranges the same three elements: the angel, the lily, the book.

    Art

  • The ballad survives in forty versions, and no two singers agree on which telling ends with the ship coming home.

    Music

  • The 1959 film is the grandest telling of the story, over three hours long with a chariot race that took months to shoot.

    Movies

  • The game offers its own telling of the Arthur legend, one where the player, not the king, decides who pulls the sword.

    Gaming

  • Every guide on the island has a different telling of the shipwreck legend, and the treasure moves to a new cove each time.

    Travel

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Found in these word lists

Each source is a published word list that contains telling. No exam board publishes an official GRE, GMAT or SAT list; GMAT words come from GRE lists and the Academic Word List.