How to Use tell time in a Sentence
tell time
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This watch does what all watches do…which is simply to tell time.
—The Editors, Outdoor Life, 1 June 2020
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That’s because a smartwatch can do so much more than tell time.
—Chris Hachey, BGR, 7 Sep. 2021
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People probably still think of me as the person that can't tell time.
—Dalton Ross, EW.com, 30 June 2022
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The decision to cancel clocks was made because students no longer knew how to use them to tell time.
—Kc Cole, Wired, 20 Oct. 2021
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With no natural light in his cell, Kevin began to tell time by the arrival of his three daily meals.
—Hannah Dreier, Washington Post, 26 Dec. 2020
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Smartwatches are devices that do more than just tell time.
—Stefanie Waldek, Travel + Leisure, 6 Apr. 2023
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My grandparents were the ones who took care of me after school, who cooked me tomato egg with rice, who taught me how to count to 10 and how to tell time in Mandarin.
—Summer Linstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2023
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And this is the wonder: remembering how to tell time simply by being, holding the seconds in the body, each one steady and strangely heavy.
—New York Times, 12 Oct. 2021
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Indeed, some of the most coveted watches today are those that not only tell time but also tell of someone else’s life and times.
—Kate Murphy, WSJ, 13 Feb. 2022
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My daughter has recently become obsessed with clocks and learning how to tell time.
—Vogue, 1 Dec. 2021
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Celeste creates brilliant timepieces with mixed media dials that not only tell time but also serve as an art piece for one’s wrist.
—Josh Max, Forbes, 14 Oct. 2021
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In 1955, when international air travel was becoming a thing, Pan Am asked Rolex to design a watch that allowed its pilots to tell time in two zones.
—Charles Curkin, ELLE Decor, 5 Oct. 2022
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Some digital watches do more than just tell time, as there are outdoor watches and solar watches that carry compasses, start/stop functions, alarms, and more.
—John Thompson, menshealth.com, 25 Apr. 2023
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Always thinking of romantic new ways to tell time, Van Cleef & Arpels’ latest high horology creations looked to nature to inform two of its most complicated timepieces to date.
—Paige Reddinger, Robb Report, 30 Mar. 2022
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tell time.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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