tail

UK/ˈteɪ̯l/US/ˈteɪ̯l/

nounA25 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,332 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: tails, tailed, tailing

A tail is the long part that sticks out at the back end of an animal. A dog's thumping against a table leg, a cat's curled round its paws, a cow swinging hers at the flies.

The back of almost anything can be a tail: the tail of a plane, the tail of a queue, the tail end of a long year. Tails is the side of a coin without the head on it — heads or tails. In spying, to tail someone is to follow them without being seen, and the person doing the following is a tail. Careful with the sound: a tail is on an animal, a tale is a story. The old phrases still carry the animal in them — to turn tail is to run away, and to be on someone's tail is to be right behind them.

Definitions of tail

1nountailThe long part sticking out from the rear end of an animal's body.A2~39%
“The dog's tail knocked a mug off the low table.”
synonyms: brush
2nounfinalThe rear or final part of something that is not an animal — of a queue, a storm, a sentence.B1~55%
“We were at the tail of the queue and got nothing.”
synonyms: rear, back, end
3verbshadowTo follow someone closely and secretly in order to watch what they do.B2~2%
“Two officers tailed him from the station to the hotel.”
synonyms: shadow, follow
4nounkeepA person who follows someone secretly to keep watch on them.B2~2%
“He was sure he had picked up a tail somewhere near the bridge.”
5nounsideThe side of a coin opposite the one showing a head; used in the plural.B1~2%
“Call it in the air — heads or tails?”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 12 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

tail is a body part.

Phrases it lives in

turn tail — turn around and run away
on someone's tail — following them closely enough to worry them
the tail wagging the dog — a small part controlling the whole thing

Where it comes from

Tail comes from Old English tæġel, through Proto-Germanic *taglą, which meant hair or fibre — the hair of a tail rather than the tail itself. Further back sits a Proto-Indo-European word *doḱ- for the hair of the tail, from *deḱ-, to tear or shred. The oldest picture, then, is a hank of coarse hair hanging at the back, not a limb.

Middle English
tayl
English, today
tail

Built from

tæġl · Old English — tail

From Middle English tayl. From Middle English tail, taile, taille, tayil, tayl, tayle, tayll, teil, tæȝel, from Old English tæġel, tæġl (“tail”), from Proto-West Germanic tagl, from Proto-Germanic taglą (“hair, fiber; hair of a tail”), from Proto-Indo-European doḱ- (“hair of the tail”), from Proto-Indo-European deḱ- (“to tear, fray, shred”). 2

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Nature & Weather, A Man Called Ove, Spying & Secrecy, Pets & Pet Care

First appears in chapter 2 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

tail in the wild

In some genes these proteins add a poly(A) tail at one of several possible sites.
Polyadenylation
In statistics, the term long-tailed distribution has a narrow technical meaning, and is a subtype of heavy-tailed distribution.
Long tail
Note that there is no sense of the "long tail" of a distribution, but only the property of a distribution being long-tailed.
Long tail
The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail.
Covert feather
Per the breed standards, they have a somewhat wedge-shaped head with large eyes and ears, quite long legs and tail, and neat rounded paws.
Sphynx cat

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

Definitions of tail

1nountailThe long part sticking out from the rear end of an animal's body.A2~39%

“The dog's tail knocked a mug off the low table.”

synonyms: brush

2nounfinalThe rear or final part of something that is not an animal — of a queue, a storm, a sentence.B1~55%

“We were at the tail of the queue and got nothing.”

synonyms: rear, back, end

3verbshadowTo follow someone closely and secretly in order to watch what they do.B2~2%

“Two officers tailed him from the station to the hotel.”

synonyms: shadow, follow

4nounkeepA person who follows someone secretly to keep watch on them.B2~2%

“He was sure he had picked up a tail somewhere near the bridge.”

5nounsideThe side of a coin opposite the one showing a head; used in the plural.B1~2%

“Call it in the air — heads or tails?”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 12 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

tail is a body part.