tal

tal

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Tal.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Tal terms

tal

1. woman

• transnewguinea.org, citing D. C. Laycock, Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea (1968), Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66

From Middle Breton tal, from Old Breton talar, from Proto-Brythonic *tal, from Proto-Celtic *talu. Cognate with Cornish tal and Welsh tâl.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɑːl/

tal m (plural talioù or taloù)

1. forehead

Inherited from Old Catalan tal, from Latin tālis. Compare Occitan tal, French tel, Spanish tal.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈtal]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

tal m or f (masculine and feminine plural tals)

1. such (like this, that)

   Synonym: semblant

• aital (obsolete)

tal

1. like that, in that way

• per tal de
• per tal que
• tal com

tal

1. anything, whatever

• “tal”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “tal”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “tal” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “tal”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

tal n

1. valley

• Umberto Patuzzi, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar, Luserna: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

tal

1. you

• IPA^(key): /taːl/

From Middle Cornish tal, taal, from Old Cornish tal, from Proto-Brythonic *tal, from Proto-Celtic *talu. Cognate with Breton tal and Welsh tâl.

tal

1. forehead
2. brow
3. (anatomy) temple

   Synonym: er

4. front

   Synonym: greuv

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

tal

1. third-person singular present indicative/future indicative of tyli (“to pay”)
2. second-person singular imperative of tyli (“to pay”)

tal

1. willow

From Old Norse tal, from Proto-Germanic *talą (“number”), cognate with Norwegian Bokmål tall, Swedish tal, Dutch tal.

• IPA^(key): /tal/, [ˈtˢal]

tal n (singular definite tallet, plural indefinite tal)

1. number
2. figure
3. digit
4. numeral
5. (after a multiple of 100) Denoting a century.

   Han levede i 1800-tallet.

   He lived in the 19th century.

• “tal” in Den Danske Ordbog

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key): /taːˀl/, [ˈtˢæˀl]

tal

1. imperative of tale

From Middle Dutch tal, from Old Dutch *tal, from Proto-West Germanic *tal, from Proto-Germanic *talą.

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑl

tal

1. (~ van) numerous, many, lots

   Je hebt tal van mogelijkheden.

   You have lots of possibilities.

tal n (plural tallen, no diminutive)

1. a number
2. a quantity

Tal is almost never used to say 'number', getal and nummer are used instead.

• alt, lat

tal

1. land

tal

1. to come

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɑl/

tal

1. adessive singular of ta (“he/she”)

• Used unstressed in a sentence. When the pronoun is stressed, temal (adessive of tema) is used.

From Old Norse tal, from Proto-Germanic *talą.

• IPA^(key): /tʰɛaːl/
• Rhymes: -ɛaːl

tal n (genitive singular tals, plural tøl)

1. number
2. (grammar) number

From Old Galician-Portuguese tal, from Latin talis.

• IPA^(key): [ˈtal]

tal

1. such

   Nunca tal vin ― I've never seen such [a thing]

• talmente

tal m or f (plural tales)

1. such

   Nunca tal cousa vin ― I've never seen such a thing

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “tal”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “tal”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “tal”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “tal”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “tal”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

tal

1. land

From Old Norse tal, from Proto-Germanic *talą.

• IPA^(key): /tʰaːl/
• Rhymes: -aːl

tal n (genitive singular tals, nominative plural töl)

1. speech, talk, the act of talking
2. a conversation
3. count, number

   Mennirnir voru hundrað talsins.

   The men were a hundred all told.

• búktal
• vita ekki aura sinna tal (“to wallow in money”)
• taka engu tali (“to be beyond description”)
• berast í tal (“to crop up in a conversation, to be mentioned”)
• færa í tal (“to bring something up”)
• ná tali af (“to get to talk to something”)
• vera á tali (“of a phone; to be engaged, to be busy”)
• viðtal
• talsetja
• talsetning

tal (apocopated)

1. apocopic form of tale

Inherited from Old Spanish tal (“such”), from Latin tālis. Compare French tel, Galician tal, Portuguese tal, and Spanish tal.

tal (Hebrew spelling טאל)^[1]

1. such (a)
   • 1982, Enrique Saporta y Beja, En torno de la torre blanca‎^[1], Editions Vidas Largas, page 325:

     A tal punto ke dizia : "En Espanya no ay ke yo i la kanalya ke semos frankofilos".

     To such a point that it was said: 'In Spain there is nobody but me and the scoundrel [to] whom we are Francophiles.'

tal (Hebrew spelling טאל)^[1]

1. such (the likes of which)
   • 2017 June 12, Amor Ayala, Los sefardíes de Bulgaria‎^[2], De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 417:

     En esta gezera se firmava kada miembro en entrando komo tal en la ḥevra.

     In this decree each member was being signed by entering as such in society.

From Proto-Finnic *taloi.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɑˀl/, [ˈtɑˀl]

ta’l

1. farmer

• Tiit-Rein Viitso; Valts Ernštreits (2012–2013), “ta’l”, in Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz [Livonian-Estonian-Latvian Dictionary]‎^[3] (in Estonian and Latvian), Tartu, Rīga: Tartu Ülikool, Latviešu valodas aģentūra

From Arabic طَالَ (ṭāla).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaːl/
• Rhymes: -aːl

tal (imperfect jtul, past participle mitul, verbal noun tul)

1. to become long, to become prolonged, to last

   Synonym: dam

• IPA^(key): /tāl/

tal

1. sun

• Blench, Robert; Bulkaam, Michael (2021) An Introduction to Mantsi, a South Bauchi language of Central Nigeria. University of Cambridge.

• Rhymes: -al

tal

1. sour

tal

1. imperative of tale

tal n (definite singular talet, indefinite plural tal, definite plural tala or talene)

1. form removed with the spelling reform of 2005; superseded by tall

From Old Norse tal.

• IPA^(key): [tʰɐ̞ːl], [tʰɐ̞ːɽ]

tal n (definite singular talet, indefinite plural tal, definite plural tala)

1. number, numeral

• dødstal
• folketal
• romartal
• talrik

• tall (Bokmål)

• “tal” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-West Germanic *tālu, from Proto-Germanic *tēlō (“deception, deceit, persecution”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to take aim, calculate, damage, count”). Cognate with Latin dolus (“deception, strategem, trap”).

• IPA^(key): /tɑːl/

tāl f

1. evil-speaking, calumny, disparagement, slander
2. (religious) blasphemy
3. reproach
4. scorn, derision, mocking

Strong ō-stem:

• tǣlan
• tāllīċ

• tǣl
• *tǣle
• tǣlnes

• tall

Inherited from Latin tālis. Cognate with Old French tel and Old Spanish tal.

tal (indefinite)

1. such (kind of)

   Synonym: atal

   • 13th-14th centuries, Denis of Portugal, “Un tal ome sei eu, ai ben-talhada”‎^[4]:

     Um tal home sei que preto sente / de si morte certamente

     I know one such man who feels unwell, [and he is] certainly dying.

• Galician: tal
• Portuguese: tal

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “tal”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

From Proto-West Germanic *dal, see also Old English dæl, Old Norse dalr.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtal/
• Rhymes: -al

tal n or m

1. valley

• Middle High German: tal
  • Alemannic German: Tall
  • German: Tal
  • Hunsrik: Daal
  • Luxembourgish: Dall
  • Mòcheno: tol
  • Pennsylvania German: Daal
  • Yiddish: טאָל (tol)

Inherited from Proto-Germanic *talą (“number, speech”). Cognate with Old English tæl, Old Saxon gital.

• (12th century Icelandic) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑl/

tal n (genitive tals, plural tǫl)

1. a talk, parley, conversation
   • Ólafs saga Helga 87, in 1830, Þ. Guðmundsson, C. C. Rafn, Þ. Helgason, Fornmanna sögur, Volume IV. Copenhagen, page 196:

     […] kom hún enn til konúngs, ok sátu þau jarl öll samt á tali, […]

     […] but she came to the king, and yet sat all the jarls in talks, […]

2. speech, language
   • Stjórn 61, in 1862, C. R. Unger, Stjórn: gammelnorsk Bibelhistorie: fra Verdens Skabelse til det babyloniske Fangenskab. Christiania, page 204:

     Sneri hann þa nafni Josephs ok kalladi hann heimsins hialpara upp aa Egiptalandz tal ok tungu.

     He turned then, speaking Joseph's name and calling him home for help in speech and tongue of Egyptian lands.

3. a tale, number, enumeration
   • Barlaams Saga 137, in 1851, R. Keyser, C. R. Unger, Barlaams ok Josaphats saga. Christiania, page 133:

     Hon er oc i tale með oðrum himintunglum, […]

     She is in that number with other heavenly bodies, […]

4. (especially in compounds) a tale, list, series
   • Gulaþings-lög 301, in 1846, E. Hertzberg, Norges gamle love indtil 1387, Volume I. Christiania, page 99:

     […] þa ſkolo fara a þing oc bioða ſic i tal með oðrom monnom.

     […] then shall go to the Thing and enter the lists with other men.

• Richard Cleasby; Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1874), “tal”, in An Icelandic-English Dictionary, 1st edition, Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, page 624
• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), “tal”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 432; also available at the Internet Archive

Inherited from Latin tālis. Cognate with Old French tel and Old Galician-Portuguese tal.

tal (indefinite)

1. same

   Synonym: atal

2. such (this kind of)

   Synonym: atal

   • c. 1250, Alfonso X, Lapidario, f. 24v:

     Et los filoſofos precian la mucho por que ella a tal uertud que aquel que la trae conſigo aguzal mucho el entendimiento ⁊ el engenno, aſſi que ninguna coſa noles grieue de entender nin de aprender.

     And philosophers prize it greatly because it has such virtue that, of he who has it with him, it sharpens their understanding and ingenuity, so that nothing is difficult for them to either understand or learn.

tal

1. (just) like; (exactly) like
   • c. 1200, Almeric, Fazienda de Ultramar, f. 50r. a.:

     Señor dios de iſrꝉ no a tal / dios en los cielos cuemo tu nĩ de yuſo en la tierra […]

     Lord, God of Israel, there is no god like you in either the heavens or on earth […]

2. such (the likes of which)
   • c. 1200, Almerich, Fazienda de Ultramar, f. 14v:

     I ẏo fare cras plouer pedriſco mui grãt. e nõ fue tal en egipto. des q̃ fue poblada troa agora. e tu aplega todo lo tuẏo q̃ es en el cãpo. ⁊ los q̃ nõ ſe acogierẽ alas caſas morrã del pedriſco.

     “[…] And tomorrow I shall make it rain a great hailstorm such that Egypt has never seen since it was settled until now. And you, bring inside all that you have in the field. And those who do not take shelter in their homes will die from the hail.”

tal (indefinite)

1. same (aforesaid thing)
   • c. 1250, Alfonso X, Lapidario, f. 56r.:

     Et fallan la ſiempre en forma de redoma ⁊ parece dentro en ella figura de ſanguſuela. ⁊ ſi la quebrantan en cada pedaço fallá otro tal.

     And they always find it shaped like a vase, and inside it seems to have what looks like a leech, and if they break it, in each piece they find the same.

• Ladino: tal, טאל
• Spanish: tal

• Ralph Steele Boggs et al. (1946), “tal”, in Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, volume II, Chapel Hill, page 486

Compare Classical Nahuatl tlālli (“land”)

• (standard) IPA^(key): /ˈtaːl/
• (Izalco) IPA^(key): /ˈtal/
• (Jicalapa) IPA^(key): /ˈtaɬʲ/

tāl (plural tālmet or tajtāl)

1. land, ground

   Tiktukat ne shupanmil keman ne tal waktuk

   For the rainy season, we plant the corn when the ground has dried up

2. earth, dirt, soil

   Tikwiwitat iwan tal pal tiktukat ka senkak

   We uproot it keeping some soil (on the roots) to plant it somewhere else

3. terrain, field, region, country

   Ashan ne Nawat semaya munutza tik ini tal

   Now Nawat (Pipil) is only spoken in this country

Compare Classical Nahuatl tlālli (“land”).

tal

1. land

Chemical element (edit)
Tl Atomic number 81 tal
Classification data Period 6 Group 13 Block p-block Class post-transition metal
Previous: ← rtęć (Hg)
Next: ołów (Pb) →

• IPA^(key): /ˈtal/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: tal

tal m inan

1. thallium (chemical element, Tl, atomic number 81)

• “tal”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[5] (in Polish)

From Old Galician-Portuguese tal, from Latin tālis, from Proto-Indo-European *tód (“demonstrative pronoun”). Displaced collateral form atal.

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

• Homophone: tau (Brazil)
• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: tal

tal m or f (plural tais)

1. such

• e tal
• que tal

tal m or f by sense (plural tais)

1. one

   Percebi que ele era o tal. ― I realised he was the one.

tal m or f (plural tais)

1. (often with de) used to express that somebody doesn't know or care about a person being talked about

   Um tal de John estava te procurando. ― Some John guy was looking for you.

tal m or f by sense (plural tais)

1. such-and-such (generic placeholder)

   Synonym: tal e tal

For quotations using this term, see Citations:tal.

• “tal”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “tal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from French thalle.

tal n (plural taluri)

1. thallus

Inherited from Old Spanish tal (“such”), from Latin tālis. Compare French tel, Galician tal, Ladino tal, and Portuguese tal.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtal/ [ˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: tal

tal m or f (masculine and feminine plural tales)

1. such

   Synonym: (obsolete) atal

   No hay tal cosa como los monstruos.

   There's no such thing as monsters.

tal m or f (masculine and feminine plural tales)

1. such

   Es la jefa, y es importante que la trates como tal.

   She's the boss, and it's important that you treat her as such.

• “tal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• “tal”, in Diccionario panhispánico de dudas [Panhispanic Dictionary of Uncertainties] (in Spanish), 2nd edition, Royal Spanish Academy; Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, 2023, →ISBN

From Old Swedish tal, from Old Norse tal, from Proto-Germanic *talą.

• Audio:

  (file)

tal n

1. (mathematics) number

   Hyponyms: naturligt tal, heltal, rationellt tal, reellt tal, komplext tal, hyperkomplext tal, superreellt tal, bråktal, blandat tal, kardinaltal, defekt tal, perfekt tal, primtal, sammansatt tal, vänskapliga tal, ymnigt tal, algebraiskt tal, transcendent tal

   reellt tal

   real number

2. (school) An exercise involving calculations given to the pupil, especially at lower levels.

   Hur många tal fick ni i matteläxa idag?

   How many math exercises did you have as homework today?

3. speech; the ability to use vocalizations to communicate
4. speech; a long oral message given publicly
5. (as a suffix) Denoting a range from x0 to x9, x00 to x99, etc...

   ett 20-tal ― a "number in the 20 to 29 range"

   jämna hundratal ― even hundreds (e.g. 200, 400, 1600, or 5800)

6. (as a suffix) around (for round numbers)

   ett 30-tal demonstranter

   around 30 protesters

7. (as a suffix, in the definite "talet") the specified decade, century, or (rarely) millennium

   åttiotalet / 80-talet

   the eighties

   nollnolltalet / 00-talet

   the 00s

   1890-talet

   the 1890s

   det sena 60-talet

   the late sixties

   artonhunradratalet / 1800-talet

   the nineteenth century

• tala
• tälja

• -årsåldern
• tvåtusental

• “tal”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “tal”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “tal”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

• lat, lat.

tal

1. willow

• (Zinacantán) IPA^(key): /tʰäl/

tal

1. (intransitive) to come

   ¿Bu likemot tal?

   Where do you come from?

   (literally, “Where have you come?”)

• (Zinacantán) yul

(Nouns)

• talel

• Laughlin, Robert M. (1975) The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of San Lorenzo Zinacantán. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
• Laughlin, Robert M. [et al.] (1988) The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of Santo Domingo Zinacantán, vol. I. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Early modern borrowing of English tall

• IPA^(key): /tal/

tal (feminine singular tal, plural talion, equative taled, comparative talach, superlative talaf)

1. tall

• byr

• briallu tal (“oxlips”)
• taldra (“tallness, height”)

Proto-Celtic *talos, from Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“ground, bottom”). Compare Irish talamh, Latin tellūs, Sanskrit तल (tala).

• tâl

• IPA^(key): /taːl/

tal m (plural talau or taloedd)

1. end, edge
2. forehead, brow, eyebrow

• IPA^(key): /taːl/

tal m (plural taliadau)

1. alternative spelling of tâl (“pay, payment”)

Probably ultimately related to taal (“language”), which see. Cognate with Dutch tal, English tale, German Zahl.

• IPA^(key): /tɔl/

tal n (plural tallen)

1. number, amount

   Synonym: oantal

2. (grammar) grammatical number

• iental
• meartal

• “tal”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

tal (intransitive)

1. obsolete spelling of taal