tall tale
Fisherman's proud account
A tall tale is an exaggerated or improbable story presented as true, often featuring outlandish feats or impossible events.
The genre flourishes in American folklore—Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Pecos Bill lassoing a tornado.
Someone spinning a tall tale knows the audience knows it's stretched: He told tall tales about fish that got away.
Mythic giant woodcutter
- John HenryLegendary steel-driving laborer
- Johnny AppleseedLegendary American tree-planting pioneer
- Davy CrockettAlamo's coonskin defender
- oral traditionCulture passed by speech
Pecos Bill · American frontier · lumberjack · cowboy · folk hero · campfire story · pioneer · trickster
Outsized thing or untruth
- fish storyBoastful exaggerated account
- stretcherPortable frame for casualties
- fabricationDeliberately untrue statement
- embellishmentDecorative addition or exaggeration
hyperbole · overstatement · boasting · bragging · blarney · puffery · inflation · distortion
Paul Bunyan
Mythic giant woodcutter
- John HenryLegendary steel-driving laborer
- Johnny AppleseedLegendary American tree-planting pioneer
- Davy CrockettAlamo's coonskin defender
Pecos Bill · oral tradition · American frontier · lumberjack · cowboy · folk hero · campfire story · pioneer · trickster · Anansi
whopper
Outsized thing or untruth
- fish storyBoastful exaggerated account
- stretcherPortable frame for casualties
- fabricationDeliberately untrue statement
embellishment · hyperbole · overstatement · boasting · bragging · blarney · puffery · inflation · distortion · stretching
yarn
Twisted strand for crafts
chronicle · account · telling · recital · narration · raconteur · spinning tales · shaggy dog story · adventure · episode
humor
Amusing quality
playfulness · escapism · diversion · spectacle · performance · laughter · absurdity · comic · farce · fun
- storytellingstory, narrative, narrator, storyteller, story time
- story typesmyth, fable, fables, legend, drama
- fishing lorefish story, fish tales, fish stories, the one that got away, whopper
- fictionfiction, novel, novels, novella, novellas
- humorjoke, jokes, joking, comedy, comic
- storiesstory, tales, myth, legend, fable
tall taletrue story
Narrative of actual events
verified account · documentary · nonfiction · historical record · eyewitness account
tell, tall, tale, tally, taller, tallest, tallness, storytelling, tall tales