tales
Legends passed down
Tales is the plural of tale—stories, especially those involving adventure, imagination, or exaggeration.
Fairy tales, tall tales, folk tales.
The word carries a slightly old-fashioned or literary flavor compared to stories: tales of heroism, cautionary tales.
To tell tales is to gossip or tattle, especially among children: Don't go telling tales to the teacher.
Storyline or land parcel
- narratorOne who tells events
- fictionImagined narrative work
- charactersPersons in a narrative
- climaxPoint of greatest intensity
setting · theme · arc · structure · protagonist · twist · dialogue · storytelling
Culture passed by speech
- legendsTraditional stories or icons
- superstitionsUnfounded beliefs about luck
- mythologyBody of traditional tales
- balladsNarrative verse set to music
proverbs · rituals · heritage · customs · ancestral · storytelling · campfire · elders
Ancient Greek fable writer
- moralityRight and wrong principles
- parableInstructive allegorical narrative
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
- lessonUnit of teaching
cautionary · didactic · wisdom · animal characters · tortoise · hare · fox · crow
Of Camelot's mythology
- ExcaliburMythic British blade
- AvalonMystical island of lore
- OdysseyEpic of homecoming
- HerculesLegendary Greek strongman
Beowulf · Gilgamesh · Troy · Siegfried · Merlin · Camelot · Robin Hood · Atlantis
Twisted strand for crafts
- reminiscenceRecalling past experiences
- recollectionRecalled mental image
- episodeSerialized content unit
- memoirWritten personal recollection
amusing · entertaining · humorous · raconteur · gossip · banter · wit · personal
plot
Storyline or land parcel
- narratorOne who tells events
- fictionImagined narrative work
- charactersPersons in a narrative
climax · setting · theme · arc · structure · protagonist · twist · dialogue · storytelling · genre
oral tradition
Culture passed by speech
- legendsTraditional stories or icons
- superstitionsUnfounded beliefs about luck
- mythologyBody of traditional tales
ballads · proverbs · rituals · heritage · customs · ancestral · storytelling · campfire · elders · passed down
Aesop
Ancient Greek fable writer
- moralityRight and wrong principles
- parableInstructive allegorical narrative
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
lesson · cautionary · didactic · wisdom · animal characters · tortoise · hare · fox · crow · instructive
Arthurian
Of Camelot's mythology
Hercules · Beowulf · Gilgamesh · Troy · Siegfried · Merlin · Camelot · Robin Hood · Atlantis · El Dorado
yarn
Twisted strand for crafts
- reminiscenceRecalling past experiences
- recollectionRecalled mental image
- episodeSerialized content unit
memoir · amusing · entertaining · humorous · raconteur · gossip · banter · wit · personal · retelling
- storiesstory, myth, legend, folktale, parable
- writingsessay, essays, article, articles, stories
- Arabian NightsAladdin, Scheherazade, Ali Baba, Arabian Nights, Sinbad
- legendsKing Arthur, Robin Hood, Hercules, Merlin, Excalibur
- African folkloreAnansi, ancestors, spirits, trickster stories, griots
- cultural communicationlanguage, speech, gestures, signs, symbols
talesbare facts
Unembellished essential information
raw data · bullet points · summaries · précis · abstracts
talesofficial records
Authenticated documented information
formal reports · affidavits · official reports · incident reports · legal documents
- fairy talesTraditional magical children's stories
- tall talesFantastical exaggerated stories
- The Canterbury TalesMedieval frame narrative collection
- old wives' taleUnfounded traditional belief
- heroic taleStory of great deeds
- folk taleTraditional oral narrative
tale, taleteller, folktales, fairy tales, taletelling, tall tales, talebearing, talebearers, talebearer