truth
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: trōōth
ipa: /tɹuːθ/
rhymes: -uːθ
Forms: form: truths
form: trewth
Etymology: From Middle English trouthe, truthe, trewthe, treowthe, from Old English trēowþ, trīewþ (“truth, veracity, faith, fidelity, loyalty, honour, pledge, covenant”), from Proto-Germanic *triwwiþō (“promise, covenant, contract”), from Proto-Indo-European *drū- (“tree”), from Proto-Indo-European *deru- (“firm, solid”), equivalent to true + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Norwegian trygd (“trustworthiness, security, insurance”), Icelandic tryggð (“loyalty, fidelity”).
Senses: examples: text: The truth is that our leaders knew a lot more than they were letting on.
text: The truth depends on, and is only arrived at, by a legitimate deduction from all the facts which are truly material.
ref: 1831 December 27, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Beauty—Genius”, in H[enry] N[elson] C[oleridge], editor, Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge. […], volume II, London: John Murray, […], published 1835, →OCLC, page 19:
text: The truth is that [Isaac] Newton was very much a product of his time. The colossus of science was not the first king of reason, Keynes wrote after reading Newton’s unpublished manuscripts. Instead “he was the last of the magicians”.
ref: 2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892, archived from the original on 04 Nov 2018:
glosses: True facts, genuine depiction or statements of reality.
examples: text: There was some truth in his statement that he had no other choice.
text: As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds.
ref: 2012 January 23, Robert M. Pringle, “How to Be Manipulative”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 31:
glosses: Conformity to fact or reality; correctness, accuracy.
examples: text: Truth to one's own feelings is all-important in life.
glosses: The state or quality of being true to someone or something.
examples: text: Alas! they had been friends in youth; / But whispering tongues can poison truth; […]
ref: 1800, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Christabel. Part II.”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […], published 1816, →OCLC, page 32:
glosses: Faithfulness, fidelity.
glosses: A pledge of loyalty or faith.
examples: text: Ploughs, […] to make them go true, […] depends much upon the truth of the ironwork.
ref: 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:
text: The process of grinding is, in fact, regarded as indispensable wherever truth is required, yet that of scraping is calculated to produce a higher degree of truth than has ever been attained by grinding.
ref: 1840, Joseph Whitworth, A Paper on Plane Metallic Surfaces or True Planes:
glosses: Conformity to rule; exactness; close correspondence with an example, mood, model, etc.
examples: text: The truth is what is.
text: Alcoholism and redemption led me finally to truth.
text: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
ref: 1819 May, John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 116:
glosses: That which is real, in a deeper sense; spiritual or ‘genuine’ reality.
examples: text: Hunger and jealousy are just eternal truths of human existence.
text: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
ref: 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Something acknowledged to be true; a true statement or axiom.
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: Topness; the property of a truth quark.
examples: text: When asked truth or dare, he picked truth.
topics: games
glosses: In the game truth or dare, the choice to truthfully answer a question put forth.
Synonyms: word: truth
word: straight goods
word: veraciousness
word: veracity
word: veridicality
word: verity
Coordinate terms: word: truthiness
word: verisimilitude
Derived terms: ain't that the truth
a lie can run around the world before the truth can get its boots on
antitruth
bend the truth
biotruth
countertruth
economical with the truth
first truth
God honest truth
God's honest truth
God's truth
gospel truth
Gospel truth
grain of truth
ground truth
half-truth
hard truth
home truth
if truth be told
in truth
in wine, there is truth
it's the truth, Ruth
kernel of truth
live one's truth
mistruth
moment of truth
naked truth
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
nontruth
nugget of truth
of a truth
plain truth
post-truth
race of truth
ring of truth
semitruth
sneeze on the truth
speak truth to power
Spirit of Truth
stretch the truth
supertruth
talk truth to power
tell the truth
tell-truth
tell you the truth
there's a grain of truth in every joke
the truth is in the wine
to tell the truth
to tell you the truth
trickle truth
troof
truthaphobia
truthbearer
truth be told
truth bomb
truth book
truth drug
truthen
truther
trutherism
truthful
truth function
truthify
truthiness
truthism
truth is stranger than fiction
truthless
truthlike
truthly
truthmaker
truthmaking
truthness
truth nuke
truthology
Truth or Consequences
truth or dare
truth quark
truth quotient
truthseeker
truth serum
truthsome
truth squad
truth table
truthteller
truth-telling
truth to tell
truth tree
truth value
truthward
truthwards
truth will out
truth window
truthy
vacuous truth
Related terms: word: true
word: untrue
word: post-truth