tale

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A recital of events or happenings; a report or revelation: told us a long tale of woe.
2. n. A malicious story, piece of gossip, or petty complaint.
3. n. A deliberate lie; a falsehood.
4. n. A narrative of real or imaginary events; a story.
5. n. Archaic A tally or reckoning; a total.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Number.
2. n. Numbering; enumeration; reckoning; account; count.
3. n. A number of things considered as an aggregate; a sum.
4. n. Account; estimation; regard; heed. See to give tale, below.
5. n. Speech; language.
6. n. A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
7. n. A report of any matter; a relation; a version.
8. n. In law, a count; a declaration.
9. n. An account of an assorted fact or circumstance; a rumor; a report; especially, an idle or malicious story; a piece of gossip or slander; a lie: as, to tell tales.
10. n. A narrative, oral or written (in prose or verse), of some real or imaginary event or group of events: a story, either true or fictitious, having for its aim to please or instruct, or to preserve move or less remote historical facts; more especially, a story displaying embellishment or invention.
11. n. to agree; concur; be in accord.
12. To speak; discourse; tell tales.
13. n. See tael.

Wiktionary

1. n. obsolete Number.
2. n. obsolete Account; estimation; regard; heed.
3. n. obsolete Speech; language.
4. n. obsolete A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
5. n. law, obsolete A count; declaration.
6. n. rare or archaic Numbering; enumeration; reckoning; account; count.
7. n. rare or archaic A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
8. n. rare or archaic A report of any matter; a relation; a version.
9. n. 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.
10. n. a type of story.
11. n. A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
12. n. slang The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark (sense 3.3) of a confidence game
13. v. To speak; discourse; tell tales.
14. v. dialectal To reckon; consider (someone) to have something.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. See tael.
2. n. That which is told; an oral relation or recital; any rehearsal of what has occured; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
3. n. A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration; a count, in distinction from measure or weight; a number reckoned or stated.
4. n. (Law), obsolete A count or declaration.
5. v. obsolete To tell stories.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program
2. n. a trivial lie