tell

Meanings

To count, reckon, or enumerate.
To narrate.
To convey by speech; to say.
To instruct or inform.
To order; to direct, to say to someone.
To discern, notice, identify or distinguish.
To reveal.
To be revealed.
To have an effect, especially a noticeable one; to be apparent, to be demonstrated.
To use (beads or similar objects) as an aid to prayer.
To inform someone in authority about a wrongdoing.
To reveal information in prose through outright expository statement -- contrasted with show

A reflexive, often habitual behavior, one occurring in a context that often features attempts at deception by persons under psychological stress (such as a poker game or police interrogation), that reveals information that the person exhibiting the behavior is attempting to withhold.
That which is told; a tale or account.
A private message to an individual in a chat room; a whisper.
A hill or mound, originally and especially in the Middle East, over or consisting of the ruins of ancient settlements.

From Middle English tellen, from Old English tellan, from Proto-Germanic *taljaną, *talzijaną, from Proto-Germanic *talą, *talǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *dol-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian tälle, West Frisian telle, West Frisian fertelle, Dutch tellen, Low German tellen, German zählen, Faroese telja. More at tale.
From Arabic تَلّ ("hill, elevation") or Hebrew תֵּל ("hill"), from Proto-Semitic *tall-.

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