tell a different story

phrase

: to show that something different is true from what someone says is true

He said he wasn't at the scene of the crime, but the fingerprints tell a different story.

Examples of tell a different story in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But the records collected by the inquiry tell a different story when they aren’t pressed into a case study of an institution’s failure to recognize what was happening on its ward. — Rachel Aviv, New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2026

Anxious Americans The national numbers tell a different story for shoppers across the country. — Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 28 Aug. 2026

Internal company Slack channels obtained by Bloomberg tell a different story. — Sarah Glodek, Fortune, 21 Aug. 2026

Still, contemporary numbers tell a different story, with available CBP figures showing only a handful of apprehensions a day across the entire 517-mile sector. — Nicole Sganga, CBS News, 20 Aug. 2026

Rhymes for tell a different story

• nondiscriminatory
• thermoregulatory
• accusatory
• admonitory
• ambulatory
• amendatory
• celebratory
• circulatory
• combinatory
• commendatory
• compensatory
• condemnatory