Etymology

Noun

1. The state or quality of being true to someone or something; faithfulness, fidelity.

   Truth to one's own feelings is all-important in life.

2. A pledge of loyalty or faith.
3. Conformity to fact or reality; correctness, accuracy.

   There was some truth in his statement that he had no other choice.

4. True facts, genuine depiction or statements of reality.

   The truth is that our leaders knew a lot more than they were letting on.

5. That which is real, in a deeper sense; spiritual or ‘genuine’ reality.

   "The truth is what is."

   Alcoholism and redemption led me finally to truth.

   • 1820: Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. — John Keats, ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’
6. Something acknowledged to be true; a true statement or axiom.

   Hunger and jealousy are just eternal truths of human existence.

   • 1813: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Antonyms

• falsehood
• falsity
• lie
• nonsense
• untruth
• half-truth

Related terms

• half-truth
• if truth be told
• tell the truth
• true
• truthful
• truthiness
• truthless
• truth or dare
• truthy
• untrue