true
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: trōō
ipa: /tɹuː/
ipa: [t̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷu̠ː]
ipa: /tɹjuː/
ipa: /tɹɪʊ̯/
rhymes: -uː
Forms: form: truer
form: more true
form: truest
form: most true
form: trew
form: trewe
form: troo
form: tr00
Etymology: From Middle English trewe, from Old English trīewe, (Mercian) trēowe (“trusty, faithful”), from Proto-Germanic *triwwiz (compare Saterland Frisian trjou (“honest”), Dutch getrouw and trouw, German treu, Norwegian and Swedish trygg (“safe, secure’”)), from pre-Germanic *drewh₂yos, from Proto-Indo-European *drewh₂- (“steady, firm”) (compare Irish dearbh (“sure”), Old Prussian druwis (“faith”), Ancient Greek δροόν (droón, “firm”)), extension of *dóru (“tree”) (possibly also Proto-Slavic *sъdorvъ (“healthy”) from the same root). More at tree. For the semantic development, compare Latin robustus (“tough”) from robur (“red oak”).
Senses: examples: text: This is a true story.
text: The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Now she had come to look upon the matter in its true proportions, and her anticipation of a possible chance of teaching him a lesson was a pleasure to behold.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 110:
text: The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, “Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 249:
text: At any rate, this does tend to put in truer perspective the symbolic claim placed by Herodotus in the mouth of 'the Athenians'—also Ionians—in 480/479, that the fact of being Greek was constituted in essential part by 'same-bloodedness'.
ref: 2009, Paul Cartledge, Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities:
text: Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.[…]One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries, as policing has spread and the routine carrying of weapons has diminished. Modern society may not have done anything about war. But peace is a lot more peaceful.
ref: 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
text: As the is it gold is it blue? dress moment proved all too well, dividing opinion on social media is really not that hard. And, when it comes to GymTok, that couldn't be truer.
ref: 2022 January 14, Jade Biggs, “This TikTok of a woman squatting in the gym is dividing people”, in Cosmopolitan, New York, N.Y.: Hearst Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2023:
glosses: Conforming to the actual state of reality or fact; factually correct.
raw_tags: of a statement
examples: text: True, I have only read part of the book, but I like it so far.
glosses: Conforming to the actual state of reality or fact; factually correct.
As an ellipsis of "(while) it is true (that)", used to start a sentence
raw_tags: of a statement
examples: text: a true copy
text: a true likeness of the original
text: […]making his eye, foot, and hand keep true time[…]
ref: 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter XI, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 229:
glosses: Conforming to a rule or pattern; exact; accurate.
examples: text: "A and B" is true if and only if "A" is true and "B" is true.
topics: human-sciences
logic
mathematics
philosophy
sciences
glosses: Of the state in Boolean logic that indicates an affirmative or positive result.
examples: text: He’s turned out to be a true friend.
text: I really let you down / Next time I'll be true, yeah
ref: 1988, Womack & Womack, “Teardrops”:
glosses: Loyal, faithful.
examples: text: The true king has returned!
text: This is true Parmesan cheese — it is from the Parma region.
text: The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunyng of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge
ref: 1568, William Cornysh, “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe …”, in John Skelton, edited by J[ohn] S[tow], Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, Imprinted at London: In Fletestreate, neare vnto Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: Printed for C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, 1736, →OCLC, page 290:
text: The Washington Monument is often described as an obelisk, and sometimes even as a “true obelisk,” even though it is not. A true obelisk is a monolith, a pylon formed out of a single piece of stone.
ref: 2012 January 23, Henry Petroski, “The Washington Monument”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 16:
glosses: Genuine; legitimate; valid; sensu stricto.
examples: text: true sparrows (Passer)
text: true spiders
text: true blusher (Amanita rubescens, as distinguished from the false blusher, Amanita pantherina)
text: The true bugs are those of the order Hemiptera; and, by some lights, most truly those of the suborder Heteroptera.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: Genuine; legitimate; valid; sensu stricto.
Used in the designation of group of species, or sometimes a single species, to indicate that it belongs to the clade its common name (which may be more broadly scoped in common speech) is restricted to in technical speech, or to distinguish it from a similar species, the latter of which may be called false.
examples: text: Whate'er the weapon, still his aim was true, Nor e'er in vain the fatal bullet flew.
ref: 1801, Mrs. Cowley, “The siege of Acre”, in The British Critic, volumes 17-18, page 521:
text: I held my breath and struck the ball. My aim was true, but I didn't give the damn thing enough gas. It died three feet from the cup.
ref: 2008, Carl Hiaasen, The downhill lie: a hacker's return to a ruinous sport, page 188:
topics: golf
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
qualifier: shooting
glosses: Accurate; following a path toward the target.
raw_tags: of an aim or missile in archery
examples: text: Is my bike wheel true? It feels unsteady.
text: Brakes need good braking surfaces and true wheels to work properly.
ref: 2013, Guy Andrews, Complete Road Bike Maintenance, first edition, London: Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 139:
glosses: Correctly aligned or calibrated, without deviation.
raw_tags: of a mechanical part
examples: text: Let Z#95;t be twice the value of a true die shown on the t-th toss.
ref: 1990, William W. S. Wei, Time Series Analysis, →ISBN, page 8:
text: In fact, few profit margins can be predicted with such reliability as those provided by a true roulette wheel or other game of chance.
ref: 2006, Judith A. Baer, Leslie Friedman Goldstein, The Constitutional and Legal Rights of Women: Cases in Law and Social Change, →ISBN:
text: Finally, the truest measure of quality: In interconference games, Western teams have a 57-38 record against the East, including overtime and penalty shootout results — a winning percentage of .600.
ref: 2007 January 21, Jeff Z. Klein, Karl-Eric Reif, “In the N.H.L., East Is East and West Is West”, in The New York Times:
text: We do not reject, because 9 heads and 3 tails is in a set of reasonably likely results when we toss a true coin.
ref: 2012, Peter Sprent, Applied Nonparametric Statistical Methods, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 5:
topics: mathematics
probability
sciences
glosses: Fair, unbiased, not loaded.
examples: text: true crime
text: true romance
text: [A] skinny blonde of about twenty sitting in an armchair by an electric fire reading a true romance magazine.
ref: 1965, James Holledge, What Makes a Call Girl?, London: Horwitz Publications, page 69:
glosses: based on actual historical events.
raw_tags: of a literary genre
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: all rumors are true
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: big if true
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: come true
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: dream come true
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: dream true
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: for real and for true
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: hold true
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: no true Scotsman fallacy
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: one true brace style
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: ring true
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: show one's true colors
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: colours
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: stripes
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: the course of true love never did run smooth
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: three true outcomes
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: throw true
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: too good to be true
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: to thine own self be true
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: tried and true
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true airspeed
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true anomaly
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true as a die
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true as I stand here
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: …I'm standing here
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true bearing
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true believer → true-believer
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: t. b. syndrome
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true bill
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true blue
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true-blue
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true-born
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true-bred
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true bug
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true civet
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true color
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: t. colors
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true copy
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true crime
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: True Cross
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true daikon
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true dat
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true density
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true ending
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true-false
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true flycatcher
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true friend
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true frog
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true grit
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true-hearted
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true jellyfish
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true laurel
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true leaf
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true lemur
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true-life
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true love → true-love knot
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: t.-l.-knot
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true lover's knot
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true mahogany
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true melon
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true muonium
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true name
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true neutral
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true north
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: True North
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true or false
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true-or-false
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true-penny
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true rhyme
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true rib
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true seal
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true sole
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true sparrow
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true strain
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true stress
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true stripes
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true tanager
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true that
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true thrush
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true time
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true toad
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true to form
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true to life
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true to one's colors
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true to oneself
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true to one's word
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true to seed
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true to type
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true up
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true vocal cord
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true weevil
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true yam
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: true yeast
sense: Terms derived from true (adjective)
word: twelve good men and true
Related terms: truth