Point
Point verb - Be a signal for or a symptom of.
Usage example: Her behavior points to a severe neurosis
Tell
Tell verb - To give an oral or written account of in some detail.
Common collocations
Both words in one sentence
- In a bit of an inversion, when Bilbo Baggins balks at getting hired as a "burglar" in The Hobbit, the dwarves miss the point and tell him he can be an "expert treasure hunter" instead.
- I was going to go on from this point and tell you exactly who V really is, but I'm afraid that I've run out of room.
Source: Interrupted by the End - This came from the Ellery Queen books, where the authors would stop at some point and tell you that you now had enough clues to prove who the murderer was.
Source: The Summation
Cite this Source
Tell and Point. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 22, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/point/tell
Point & Tell. N.p., 2016. Web. 22 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/point/tell>.
Tell or Point. 2016. Accessed July 22, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/point/tell.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "point" and "tell" have occurred on timeline