as in informant
a person who provides information about another's wrongdoing
don't be such a tattletale and tell me about every little thing your sister does
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Recent Examples of tattletale
That kid has tattletale energy.
—
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 7 Apr. 2026
People who come forward are called narcs, tattletales and snitches.
—Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 26 Feb. 2026
Years later, their youngest daughter, Hannah Burch – now 24 and a mother herself – shared a viral TikTok video reflecting on the unique ways she and her siblings were raised — from rules around being a tattletale to monthly family yardwork and chore expectations.
—Tereza Shkurtaj, PEOPLE, 18 Oct. 2025
Unfortunately, The Croat, being a complete and total tattletale, blabbed to The Dama that Negan had hesitated.
—Charlie Mason, TVLine, 11 May 2025
Upsides And Downsides Are At Stake Generative AI can readily be shaped as a tattletale or snitch by an AI maker.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes, 14 Mar. 2025
The two of them, as though after a party, would have stood at the sink cleaning dishes and wondering which among the attendees was the traitor, the tattletale.
—Hazlitt, 26 July 2023
We’re basically guaranteed to see that thing where one person tells Zach that another person is there for the wrong reasons, but then the tattletale winds up consumed by their own vendetta and self-sabotages.
—Andrea Marks, Rolling Stone, 23 Jan. 2023
One errant tweet, one mistimed joke, one honest opinion overheard by an oversensitive busybody with the shrunken soul of a schoolyard tattletale, and a person’s job can be lost and his reputation destroyed.
—James E. Person Jr., National Review, 17 Sep. 2020
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 7 Apr. 2026
People who come forward are called narcs, tattletales and snitches.
—Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 26 Feb. 2026
Years later, their youngest daughter, Hannah Burch – now 24 and a mother herself – shared a viral TikTok video reflecting on the unique ways she and her siblings were raised — from rules around being a tattletale to monthly family yardwork and chore expectations.
—Tereza Shkurtaj, PEOPLE, 18 Oct. 2025
Unfortunately, The Croat, being a complete and total tattletale, blabbed to The Dama that Negan had hesitated.
—Charlie Mason, TVLine, 11 May 2025
Upsides And Downsides Are At Stake Generative AI can readily be shaped as a tattletale or snitch by an AI maker.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes, 14 Mar. 2025
The two of them, as though after a party, would have stood at the sink cleaning dishes and wondering which among the attendees was the traitor, the tattletale.
—Hazlitt, 26 July 2023
We’re basically guaranteed to see that thing where one person tells Zach that another person is there for the wrong reasons, but then the tattletale winds up consumed by their own vendetta and self-sabotages.
—Andrea Marks, Rolling Stone, 23 Jan. 2023
One errant tweet, one mistimed joke, one honest opinion overheard by an oversensitive busybody with the shrunken soul of a schoolyard tattletale, and a person’s job can be lost and his reputation destroyed.
—James E. Person Jr., National Review, 17 Sep. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tattletale
Noun
-
Federal prosecutors in Alabama secured an 11-count indictment accusing the organization of paying millions of dollars to some of those undercover informants and hiding the real purpose of the payments from its donors.—
Josh Meyer,
USA Today,
25 Apr. 2026
-
As Ballmer sees it, Sanberg agreed to cooperate in exchange for the league submitting a favorable sentencing letter to Judge Wilson, and thus he shouldn’t be regarded as a credible informant.—
Michael McCann,
Sportico.com,
24 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
And so every regime invests in having student informers.—
Anne Applebaum,
The Atlantic,
23 Jan. 2026
-
The whole family is deeply involved in the revolutionary movement: the oldest son disappears into Siberia, never to be seen or heard of again, while the youngest, eighteen, is jailed together with his father, and executed after his cell is exposed by an informer.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
22 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Vanessa Beecroft was a canary in the coal mine, merging, subverting, and exploiting art, fashion, money, and spectacle.—
Jerry Saltz,
Vulture,
20 Apr. 2026
-
Freund said that influencers may be a canary in the coal mine for problems that all of us might soon face with the rise of this tech.—
Taylor Lorenz,
Vanity Fair,
15 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
The Angels went to bat against the rats, announcing that cleaning crews would get to work an hour after each game instead of waiting until the next morning.—
Steve Henson,
Los Angeles Times,
28 Apr. 2026
-
The Los Angeles Angels have seemingly traded the rally monkey in for alley rats.—
Alejandro Avila OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
28 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Wandering tattlers, the ruddy turnstone and a variety of other summer migrants will be found on our local beaches.—
Ernie Cowan,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
8 June 2025
-
Tattling to the Bachelor doesn’t always go well for the tattler.—
Kristen Baldwin,
EW.com,
25 Feb. 2025
Noun
-
Jackson Thompson is a sports reporter for Fox News Digital covering critical political and cultural issues in sports, with an investigative lens.—
Jackson Thompson OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
30 Apr. 2026
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Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.—
Jeff Vorva,
Chicago Tribune,
30 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Tattletale.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tattletale. Accessed 3 May. 2026.
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