truth
Pluraltruths (some meanings)
Pluraltruths (some meanings)
Formstruths, truthing, truthed
- 1True facts; a genuine account or statement of reality.
Reporters spent months digging for the truth behind the scandal.
After years of silence, she finally told her children the truth about their father.
UsageMost often the truth: tell the truth (not
incorrect: say the truth), the truth is that…Oppositefalsehood, fiction, lies
Note
The everyday meaning is not the oldest one. Old English trēowþ meant faith, loyalty and pledge as well as veracity, and its deepest root meant "firm, solid", so what was true was first what held fast.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The meaning involving facts developed after the meaning involving faithfulness. journal.interpreterfoundation.org
- Old English trēowþ meant faith, loyalty, pledge and veracity. en.wiktionary.org
- The ultimate reconstructed root conveyed firmness or solidity, underlying the association with steadfastness. en.wiktionary.org
- 2The quality of agreeing with fact or reality; correctness, accuracy.
Scientists tested the truth of the hypothesis through repeated experiments.
The truth of his alibi depended on the timestamps.
UsageOften some truth in a claim, or the truth of a claim.
Similaraccuracy, correctness, validity, veracity
Oppositefalsity, inaccuracy
Note
Here the word measures a statement instead of naming the facts, which is why it can come in portions: there is some truth in a claim, and the truth of a claim can be tested.
- 3A statement or principle accepted as true; an established fact or axiom.
Mathematicians build proofs from a small set of basic truths.
That kindness costs nothing is a truth worth remembering.
UsageOften with an adjective: a universal truth, basic truths, eternal truths.
Similaraxiom, principle, fact, maxim, truism
Note
Jane Austen opens Pride and Prejudice (1813) with "It is a truth universally acknowledged", and adjectives like eternal and universal gather around it naturally. A truth here is an individual statement, fact, or principle regarded as true, a single item you can point to, not the uncountable mass of facts.
- 4Reality in a deeper, spiritual sense; that which is genuinely real beyond appearances.
The monk spent decades seeking the truth that lies beneath all things.
He left the city to pursue spiritual truth in the mountains.
UsageOften with no article: seek truth, led to truth.
Similarreality
Oppositeillusion
Note
Keats gave it its most famous line in "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1820), "Beauty is truth, truth beauty", where it names an ideal, not a fact.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- John Keats wrote Ode on a Grecian Urn. en.wikipedia.org
- The poem contains the exact words "Beauty is truth, truth beauty". en.wikisource.org
- 5To speak honestly; to give a true account.
You keep lying, when you oughta be truthin'
1966, Nancy Sinatra, These Boots Are Made for Walkin'UsageIn formal writing, use tell the truth.
Oppositelie
Note
Song and casual speech set this verb directly against lying, as in Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" (1965), where a dishonest partner is scolded for lying when he should be doing this instead.
Less common meanings
- 6In the game truth or dare, the option of honestly answering a question rather than performing a dare.
She chose truth and finally admitted who she had a crush on.
Picking truth felt safer than whatever dare they had planned.
UsageNo article inside the game: pick truth. The pairing is truth or dare, in that order.
- 7Faithfulness, loyalty, or constancy to a person, cause, or principle.
- 8Exactness; close agreement with a rule, model, or standard.
The machinist measured the truth of the surface against a precision plate.
The bike shop spun my front wheel to check its truth before fitting a new tire.
UsageBuilds with of: the truth of a surface or a wheel.
Similaraccuracy, precision, exactness, alignment
Note
Here truth is something a machinist measures, not something a witness tells. John Mortimer's The Whole Art of Husbandry (1707) makes a plow's running true depend on the truth of its ironwork, and Joseph Whitworth's A Paper on Plane Metallic Surfaces or True Planes (1840) grades surfaces by degree of truth.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- John Mortimer wrote The Whole Art of Husbandry, first published in 1707. en.wikipedia.org
- Mortimer connects a plough's running true with the truth of its ironwork. en.wiktionary.org
- Joseph Whitworth wrote the paper titled A Paper on Plane Metallic Surfaces or True Planes. en.wikisource.org
- Whitworth describes surfaces as having different degrees of truth. en.wikisource.org
- 9In particle physics, the quantum property known as topness, carried by the top (formerly 'truth') quark.
Similartopness
Note
Particle physicists once named this property after the truth quark. Both names have since largely given way to top quark and topness. The older term sounds dated, though it still turns up as an alternative name.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Truth was a name for the quantum property associated with the truth quark. en.wiktionary.org
- 10To declare something as true; to assert or affirm it.
Note
This early verb took both an object and a complement. In The Fancies Chaste and Noble (c. 1636), John Ford has a character say that the ancients "would have truthed it heaven", meaning they would have declared it to be heaven. The pattern is like "call it" or "name it".
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The historical verb meant to declare something true and could take an object plus an object complement, like 'call it' or 'name it'. en.wiktionary.org
- The play was first published in 1638. Approximately 1636 concerns its performance or composition, not its first publication. emed.folger.edu
- The quoted wording occurs in the play and means declaring it heaven; the fictional speaker is Livio, discussing the ancients. daikatana.digitalearlymodern.com
- 11A solemn pledge of loyalty or faith.
Note
Here the word names the pledge itself: the promise given, not the loyalty behind it. Its Germanic ancestor meant "promise, covenant, contract", and this sense keeps that contractual edge. It has fallen out of use, so a phrase like "swore his truth" will be misread today as a vow of honesty.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Truth historically named a pledge of loyalty or faith, distinct from loyalty itself. en.wiktionary.org
- Truth descends from a Germanic ancestor with the reconstructed meanings 'promise' and 'contract', encompassing a covenant. en.wiktionary.org
- 12To make data exact by checking it against reality and correcting any inaccuracy.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English trouthe, from Old English trēowþ ("truth, faith, fidelity, loyalty, pledge"), from Proto-Germanic *triwwiþō ("promise, covenant"), tracing back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "firm, solid." It is essentially "true" plus an abstract noun suffix, and is related to Icelandic tryggð ("loyalty").
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- Truth descends from Middle English trouthe, which descends from Old English trēowþ. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English trēowþ had meanings covering truth, faith, fidelity, loyalty, and a pledge. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English trēowþ descends from Proto-Germanic *triwwiþō. en.wiktionary.org
- Proto-Germanic *triwwiþō meant a promise or covenant. en.wiktionary.org
- The ancestry includes a Proto-Indo-European root expressing firmness or solidity. en.wiktionary.org
- The word is equivalent to true plus an abstract noun suffix. en.wiktionary.org
- Truth is cognate with Icelandic tryggð, meaning loyalty. en.wiktionary.org