retell

/riˈtɛl/

/riˈtɛl/

Other forms: retelling; retold; retells

If you recite your story a second time, you retell it. After they hear about how you actually slipped on a banana peel, your laughing friends may beg you to retell the incident over and over again.

To retell is to reiterate something, or to tell it again. You might retell your favorite joke every time you have a new audience, or you may find yourself having to retell the details of a fender bender you witnessed once the police show up. When a writer takes up an old theme or story to put their own new twist on it, they retell it: "My goal was to retell the classic Cinderella tale in a modern way."

Definitions of retell

1. verb

   to say, state, or perform again
   synonyms: ingeminate, iterate, reiterate, repeat, restate

   types:

   perseverate

   psychology: repeat a response after the cessation of the original stimulus

   ditto

   repeat an action or statement

   dwell, harp

   come back to

   interpret, render, translate

   restate (words) from one language into another language

   paraphrase, rephrase, reword

   express the same message in different words

   resume, sum up, summarise, summarize

   give a summary (of)

   cite, quote

   repeat a passage from

   retranslate

   translate again

   mistranslate

   translate incorrectly

   gloss

   provide an interlinear translation of a word or phrase

   Latinise, Latinize

   translate into Latin

   translate

   express, as in simple and less technical language

   abstract

   give an abstract (of)

   precis

   make a summary (of)

   docket

   make a summary or abstract of a legal document and inscribe it in a list

   recap, recapitulate

   summarize briefly

   misquote

   quote incorrectly

   type of:

   tell

   let something be known
2. verb

   make into fiction
   synonyms: fictionalise, fictionalize

   type of:

   re-create

   create anew
3. verb

   render verbally, "recite a poem"
   “retell a story”

   synonyms: recite

   type of:

   re-create

   create anew