Truth
Pronunciation
- enPR: trÅÅth, IPA: /tɹuËθ/
- Rhymes: -uËθ
Alternative forms
- trewth obsolete
Origin
From Middle English, from Old English trēowþ, trīewþ ("truth, veracity, faith, fidelity, loyalty, honour, pledge, covenant"), from Proto-Germanic *triwwiþŠ("promise, covenant, contract"), from Proto-Indo-European *drū- ("tree"), from Proto-Indo-European *deru- ("firm, solid"), equivalent to true + -th. Cognate with Icelandic tryggð ("loyalty, fidelity").
Noun
truth
(usually uncountable; plural truths)- The state or quality of being true to someone or somethingTruth to one's own feelings is all-important in life.
- (archaic) Faithfulness, fidelity.
- Samuel Taylor ColeridgeAlas! they had been friends in youth,
But whispering tongues can poison truth. - (obsolete) A pledge of loyalty or faith.
- True facts, genuine depiction or statements of reality.The truth is that our leaders knew a lot more than they were letting on.
- ColeridgeThe truth depends on, or is only arrived at by, a legitimate deduction from all the facts which are truly material.
- Conformity to fact or reality; correctness, accuracy.
- 2012-01
- There was some truth in his statement that he had no other choice.
- Conformity to rule; exactness; close correspondence with an example, mood, model, etc.
- MortimerPloughs, to go true, depend much on the truth of the ironwork.
- 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, John Keats, ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. - (countable) Something acknowledged to be true; a true statement or axiom.Hunger and jealousy are just eternal truths of human existence.
- 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and PrejudiceIt is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
- (physics, dated) Topness. (See also truth quark.)
Synonyms
- See