Tale

Tale may refer to:

• Cautionary tale, a traditional story told in folklore, to warn its hearer of a danger
• Fairy tale, a fictional story that usually features folkloric characters (such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, witches, giants, and talking animals) and enchantments
• Folk tale, a story passed-down within a particular population, which comprises the traditions of that culture or group.
• Fable, a brief story, which illustrates a moral lesson and which features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphised
• Frame tale, whereby the main story is composed, at least in part, for the purpose of organizing a set of shorter stories.
• Urban legend, a modern folk tale consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them
• Old wives' tale, a wisdom much like an urban legend, supposedly passed down by old wives to a younger generation
• Tall tale, a story that tries to explain the reason for some natural phenomenon
• TALE, or transcription activator-like effector, a type of DNA binding protein secreted by infectious bacteria of plants that contains a highly engineerable DNA binding domain