Story vs Tale - What's the difference?
story | tale |
A sequence of real or fictional events; or, an account of such a sequence.
* Ed. Rev.
* Sir W. Temple
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1
, passage=The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed. They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.}}
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= A lie.
(chiefly, US) A floor or level of a building; a storey.
* 1900 , , (The House Behind the Cedars) , chapter I:
(US, colloquial, usually pluralized) A soap opera.
(obsolete) History.
* 1644 , (John Milton), (Aeropagitica) :
A sequence of events, or a situation, such as might be related in an account.
To tell as a story; to relate or narrate about.
* Shakespeare
* Bishop Wilkins
(obsolete) Number.
(obsolete) Account; estimation; regard; heed.
(obsolete) Speech; language.
(obsolete) A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
(legal, obsolete) A count; declaration.
(rare, or, archaic) Numbering; enumeration; reckoning; account; count.
* (John Dryden)
(rare, or, archaic) A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
(rare, or, archaic) A report of any matter; a relation; a version.
An account of an asserted fact or circumstance; a rumour; a report, especially an idle or malicious story; a piece of gossip or slander; a lie.
* , chapter=7
, title= A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
* Hooker
* Milton
* Carew
* 1843 (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 2, ch. 5, ''Twelfth Century
(slang) The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark (sense 3.3) of a confidence game.
(dialectal, or, obsolete) To speak; discourse; tell tales.
(dialectal, chiefly, Scotland) To reckon; consider (someone) to have something.
Tale is a synonym of story.
In obsolete terms the difference between story and tale
is that story is history while tale is a speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.As nouns the difference between story and tale
is that story is a sequence of real or fictional events; or, an account of such a sequence while tale is number.As verbs the difference between story and tale
is that story is to tell as a story; to relate or narrate about while tale is to speak; discourse; tell tales.story
English
Alternative forms
* storie (obsolete), storeyNoun
(stories)- Venice, with its unique city and its impressive story
- The four great monarchies make the subject of ancient story .
Travels and travails, passage=Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.}}
- The lower story of the market-house was open on all four of its sides to the public square.
- who is so unread or so uncatechis'd in story , that hath not heard of many sects refusing books as a hindrance, and preserving their doctrine unmixt for many ages, only by unwritt'n traditions.
Usage notes
* (soap opera) Popularized in the 1950s, when soap operas were often billed as "continuing stories", the term "story" to describe a soap opera fell into disuse by the 21st century and is now used chiefly among older people and in rural areas. Other English-speaking countries used the term at its zenith as a "loaned" word from the United States.Synonyms
* (account) tome * (lie) See * (floor) floor, level * (soap opera) soap opera, serial * narrativeDerived terms
* Banbury story of a cock and a bull * bedtime story * chain story * cock-and-bull story * cover story * end of story * fish story * ghost story * horror story * just-so story * likely story * love story * my stories * shaggy-dog story * short short story * short story * sob story * storiation * story editor * storybook * storyline * story of my life * storyteller * storytelling * success story * tall story * to cut a long story short * war storyVerb
- How worthy he is I will leave to appear hereafter, rather than story him in his own hearing.
- It is storied of the brazen colossus in Rhodes, that it was seventy cubits high.
Statistics
*Anagrams
* 1000 English basic wordstale
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl), from (etyl) . Related to tell, talk.Noun
(en noun)- Both number twice a day the milky dams; And once she takes the tale of all the lambs.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=“A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. […]”}}
- the ignorant, who measure by tale , and not by weight
- And every shepherd tells his tale , / Under the hawthorn in the dale.
- In packing, they keep a just tale of the number.
- They proceeded with some rigour, these Custodiars; took written inventories, clapt-on seals, exacted everywhere strict tale and measure