tall tale vs tale

tall tale and tale both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
tall tale	Yes	No	No	No
tale	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, tale is a hypernym of tall tale; that is, tale is a word with a broader meaning than tall tale:

tall tale: an improbable (unusual or incredible or fanciful) story
tale: a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program

Other hypernyms of tall tale include narration, narrative, story.

tall tale (noun)	tale (noun)
an improbable (unusual or incredible or fanciful) story	a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program
	a trivial lie