東西自己開口
核心是「說出來」，這個家族只是換了說話的人：不是人開口，是細節開口。
adjective · B2
A telling detail, look, pause or silence is one that shows you the truth about a person or a situation, often at a moment when nobody meant to show it.
透露真相的
核心畫面
Telling can be pictured as the verb tell held still as a thing: the moment when something gets said out loud. From that one picture the rest grow. A story gets a telling, and a second telling, and each one comes out a little different. A pause that nobody meant as an answer can still say everything, so we call it telling. An argument that lands says the last word for you, so that is telling too. And when the answer cannot be said by anyone yet, there is no telling.
「telling」可以想成：tell 這個動作被抓成一個東西，也就是「說出來」的那一下。從這個畫面往外長。有人真的開…更多收起
「telling」可以想成：tell 這個動作被抓成一個東西，也就是「說出來」的那一下。從這個畫面往外長。有人真的開口講故事，那是 the telling，而且同一個故事每講一次都不太一樣。有東西沒開口卻等於開口了，像一個停頓、一個眼神，那是 a telling pause。有一句話一出來就把勝負講完了，那是 a telling argument。反過來，當誰都講不出答案的時候，就是 there's no telling。From the word’s history
The packet's Wiktionary entry records the noun telling as a gerund of the verb tell (tell + -ing), which matches the core picture: the act of telling, turned into a thing.
packet 裡的 Wiktionary 記載，名詞 telling 是動詞 tell 的動名詞（tell 加 -ing）。這正好對上核心畫面：把「說」這個動作變成一件可以指、可以數的東西。
Wiktionary (kaikki extract supplied in packet, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:846516808)
From the picture
這一下把勝負講完了
還是「說出來」，只是這次說出來的是結果：這一擊等於替所有人把結論講完。
adjective · C1
A telling argument, piece of evidence, moment or blow is one that has a strong effect and really counts, often changing how the whole thing ends.
有力的；關鍵的
Also in this word
noun · B2
The act of telling a story, or one single time that a story is told, when each person and each time can tell it a little differently.
講述（一次）
noun · B2
You say there is no telling what, who, when or how something will happen when nobody can know the answer, because it could go many different ways.
說不準；無從得知
原始詞典資料8 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
tellingadj詞源 1/ˈtɛlɪŋ/
- 1
Having force, or having a marked effect; weighty, effective.
- a telling blow
- 2
Revealing information; bearing significance.
- a telling smile
- But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low.
- 3
Serving to convince.
- telling evidence
tellingnoun詞源 2/ˈtɛlɪŋ/
- 1
The act of narration.
- 2
The disclosure of information.
- There may he sit and smile, or creep among the ships, or moan and sigh round islands in his great content—the miser lord of wealth in gems and pearls beyond the telling of all fables.
- 3
archaicCounting, numbering.
- 4
Ability to determine.
- "One white man." said Bill, after a brief inspection. "Out on his line, I s'pose, and there's no tellin' when he'll be back. So we won't wait. We'll just serve notice on him."
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。