Sapling Logo

“Tails” or “Tales”

tails / tales are similar-sounding terms with different meanings (referred to as homophones). To better understand the differences, see below for definitions, pronunciation guides, and example sentences using each term.

Get Sapling See examples
Definitions

What each term means

Same sound, different spellings and meanings, shown with a pronunciation guide for each term.

tails t·EY·l·z

No dictionary entry for this spelling — see the usage examples below for how it shows up in writing.

tales t·EY·l·z

No dictionary entry for this spelling — see the usage examples below for how it shows up in writing.

Usage

Examples in context

Real sentences for each spelling. Hover an example to copy it.

“tails”

  • …pointed wings and long forked tails, and the coursers, which have…
  • …the infamous Cat 'o Nine Tails, a nine-corded whip with one…
  • …ram (5) which raises the tails of the spacebands, unless the…
  • …metallic starlings by shorter, square tails and thicker bills.
  • …either the Heads or the Tails row, it is filled by…
  • …bills, short legs and stubby tails.
  • …of both sexes have long tails, but only during the breeding
  • …size with slender bodies, long tails and strong legs.
  • Heads and Tails is a solitaire card game…
  • …cards on the Heads or Tails rows can be built either…

“tales”

  • Fairy tales
  • …from the Mythos, including Cthulhu Tales and Fall of Cthulhu.
  • New Tales of Gisaeng
  • …Theatre, Walt Disney Presents, and Tales of Wells Fargo.
  • "Throughout human history, fairy tales, legends and songs have always…
  • …published in US magazine Weird Tales, the Canadian anthology Lust For…
  • …are often based on tall tales.
  • Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps, miniseries, #1…
  • …Nakhalyonok (1961) based on Don Tales by Mikhail Sholokhov.
  • …has adapted some of Lovecraft's tales into manga.

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license. Definitions are drawn from WordNet.

Too much to remember?

Looking for a tool that handles this for you wherever you write?

Install Sapling Try the grammar checker