tell of
phrasal verb
told of; telling of; tells of
formal + literary
1
: to be evidence of (something) : to indicate
Her smile told of her good news.
His rough hands tell of a hard life.
2
: to describe (something) : to make the details of (something) known
The article tells of her Arctic journey.
3
: to talk to (someone) about (something)
He told us of his plans to move to the city.
Examples of tell of in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Though Mazen would not survive to describe his last imprisonment, other former inmates have emerged to tell of similar experiences.
—
Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 27 Jan. 2025
Anderson told of the feud between Keim and Ford that started after a real estate partnership went bad in 1921, a few years after Ford married Keim’s daughter, Edna.
—Mara Bovsun, New York Daily News, 26 Jan. 2025
Humanity’s oldest epic is a doomed quest for immortality: Around four millenniums ago, the Sumerians told of a Mesopotamian king named Gilgamesh who set out to find life everlasting and briefly located a youth-restoring plant, only to lose it on his way home.
—Joe Kloc, New York Times, 18 Jan. 2025
Workers at the circuit’s handful of unionized locations including Brooklyn and lower Manhattan were told of layoffs planned as of Feb. 1, but that would be subject to bargaining.
—Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 14 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for tell of 
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 27 Jan. 2025
Anderson told of the feud between Keim and Ford that started after a real estate partnership went bad in 1921, a few years after Ford married Keim’s daughter, Edna.
—Mara Bovsun, New York Daily News, 26 Jan. 2025
Humanity’s oldest epic is a doomed quest for immortality: Around four millenniums ago, the Sumerians told of a Mesopotamian king named Gilgamesh who set out to find life everlasting and briefly located a youth-restoring plant, only to lose it on his way home.
—Joe Kloc, New York Times, 18 Jan. 2025
Workers at the circuit’s handful of unionized locations including Brooklyn and lower Manhattan were told of layoffs planned as of Feb. 1, but that would be subject to bargaining.
—Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 14 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for tell of
Dictionary Entries Near tell of
Cite this Entry
“Tell of.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tell%20of. Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share