noun
1 what is true
ADJECTIVE
▪ absolute , gospel ( informal ), honest ( informal ), real
▪
She takes everything she reads in the paper as gospel ~.
▪ complete , entire , full , whole
▪
It still doesn't make sense to me—I don't think he's told us the whole ~.
▪ exact , literal
▪ naked , plain , simple
▪
The simple ~ is he's lost his job.
▪ pure , unvarnished
▪
the plain unvarnished ~
▪ hidden , secret
▪
the hidden ~ behind the events of the last four years
▪ underlying
▪ awful , bitter , brutal , cruel , dreadful , grim , hard , harsh , horrible , painful , sad , shocking , terrible , ugly , uncomfortable , unfortunate , unpalatable ( esp. BrE ), unpleasant , unwelcome
▪
the shocking ~ about heroin addiction among the young
▪
The sad ~ is he never loved her.
▪ factual , objective
▪ empirical , historical , moral , poetic , psychological , religious , scientific , spiritual
▪
It's a good movie but contains little historical ~.
▪ divine , revealed
▪
the revealed ~ of God
… OF TRUTH
▪ element , germ , glimmer , grain , kernel , nugget , ounce , shred
▪
There may have been a grain of ~ in what he said.
VERB + TRUTH
▪ know
▪
So now you know the ~.
▪
If the ~ be known, I was afraid to tell anyone.
▪ admit , convey , expose , speak , tell (sb)
▪
He was reminded of his duty to speak the ~ when questioned in court.
▪
I'm sure she's telling the ~.
▪
To tell you the ~, I'm rather dreading his return.
▪ establish , discern , discover , find out , get , get at , get to , learn , reveal , uncover
▪
She was determined to discover the ~ about her boss.
▪
We're going to try to get the ~ out of this boy.
▪
The journalist protested that he was only trying to get at the ~.
▪ seek
▪
a man on a journey seeking the ~ about God and humanity
▪ guess
▪ accept , acknowledge , face (up to) , grasp , realize
▪
He realized the ~ in Adam's words.
▪ doubt
▪
The police doubt the ~ of his statement.
▪ conceal , cover up , hide , suppress
▪
You've been hiding the ~ from me!
▪ deny
▪
Dare anyone deny the ~ of what we have said?
▪ bend , distort , stretch , twist
▪
Lawyers distorted the ~ about the deal.
▪ handle
▪
He was too fragile to handle the ~.
TRUTH + VERB
▪ be , lie
▪
We are examining the matter to see where the ~ lies.
▪ come out , emerge
▪
Almost at the end of the letter the cruel ~ emerged.
▪ dawn on sb
▪
The awful ~ suddenly dawned on her.
PREPOSITION
▪ in ~
▪
She laughed and chatted but was, in ~, not having much fun.
▪ ~ about
▪
She would later find out the ~ about her husband.
▪ ~ behind
▪
What's the ~ behind all the gossip?
▪ ~ in
▪
There is no ~ in these allegations.
PHRASES
▪ an/the arbiter of ~
▪
They claim to be the arbiters of sacred ~.
▪ be economical with the ~ (= not to tell the whole truth) ( esp. BrE )
▪ moment of ~
▪
Finally the moment of ~ will be upon you.
▪ nothing could be further from the ~
▪
I know you think she's mean, but nothing could be further from the ~.
▪ the pursuit of (the) ~
▪
They were motivated by the pursuit of the ~.
▪ the quest for (the) ~ , the search for (the) ~
▪ a ring of ~
▪
His explanation has a ring of ~ to it.
▪ a seeker after ~ ( literary )
▪
seekers after divine ~
▪ a semblance of ~
▪ the ~ of the matter
▪
The ~ of the matter is we can't afford to keep all the staff on.
▪ the ~ will come out , the ~ will out ( saying )
2 fact that is true
ADJECTIVE
▪ basic , central , common , essential , eternal , fundamental , general , great , immutable , important , profound , simple , timeless , ultimate , universal
▪
in search of the eternal ~s of life
▪ ancient
▪ obvious , self-evident , undeniable
▪
We hold these ~s to be self-evident …
▪ deep
▪
the deeper ~s that often go unspoken
▪ underlying
▪ half , partial
▪
His evidence was a blend of smears, half ~s and downright lies.
▪ harsh , home , painful , uncomfortable , unpalatable ( esp. BrE ), unpleasant , unwelcome
▪
It's time we told him a few home ~s about sharing a house.
▪ necessary
▪ moral , philosophical , scientific
▪ biblical , divine , spiritual , theological , transcendent
▪
Science, like theology, reveals transcendent ~s about a changing world.
VERB + TRUTH
▪ establish , reveal , uncover
▪ tell sb
▪ accept , acknowledge , face up to
PREPOSITION
▪ ~ about
▪
She was forced to face up to a few unwelcome ~s about her family.