truth

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Conformity to fact

Nouns

1. truth, fact, reality; verity, gospel, authenticity; plain, unvarnished, sober, or naked truth, matter of fact; the Gospel or naked truth; the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Slang, the [real] McCoy, the goods. See rightness, maxim.

2. truthfulness, veracity; fidelity; accuracy, exactitude; exactness, preciseness, precision. See probity, certainty.

Verbs

1. be true, be the case; stand the test; hold good or true, have the true ring; render or prove true, substantiate (see evidence); get at the truth. Informal, hold water, hit the nail on the head.

2. be truthful; speak or tell the truth; not lie; speak one's mind; make a clean breast (see disclosure); cross one's heart. Slang, say a mouthful, come across, word up, come off it.

Adjectives

1. true, factual, real, actual, existing; veritable, certain (see certainty); unimpeachable; unrefuted, unconfuted; genuine, authentic, legitimate; pure, sound, sterling, unadulterated, unvarnished, uncolored; well-grounded, well-founded; solid, substantial, tangible, valid; undistorted, undisguised, honest-to-goodness; unaffected, unexaggerated, unromantic, unflattering. Informal, all wool and a yard wide.

2. exact, accurate, definite, precise, well-defined, just, right, correct, strict; literal; undisguised; faithful, constant, unerring.

3. truthful, veracious; sincere, pure, guileless, bona fide, true blue. Slang, up front, outfront. See probity.

Adverbs

1. truly, verily, indeed, really, in reality; with truth, certainly, actually, for real; exactly, verbatim, word for word, literally, sic, to the letter, chapter and verse, to an inch; to a nicety, to a hair, to a turn, to a T; neither more nor less, in so many words; in every respect, in all respects; at any rate, at all events; strictly speaking; de facto. Informal, on the nose, smack-dab. Slang, on the button.

2. truthfully, etc.; at heart, from the bottom of one's heart; honor bright.

Phrases — many a true word is spoken in jest; tell the truth and shame the devil; truth is stranger than fiction; truth will out; honesty is the best policy; what everybody says must be true; that's about the size of it.

Quotations — Great is Truth, and mighty above all things (Bible), Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth (Aristotle), And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (Bible), I design plain truth for plain people (John Wesley), 'Tis strange — but true; for truth is always strange; stranger than fiction (Lord Byron), It is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions (T. H. Huxley), The truth is rarely pure, and never simple (Oscar Wilde), Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it (Mark Twain), A platitude is simply a truth repeated until people get tired of hearing it (Stanley Baldwin), The aim of the superior man is truth (Confucius), There are truths which can kill a nation (Jean Giraudoux), A great truth is a truth whose opposite is also a truth (Thomas Mann).

Antonyms, see error, falsehood.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Conformity to reality]

Syn. truthfulness, veracity, correctness, sincerity, verity, candor, openness, honesty, fidelity, frankness, revelation, exactitude, authenticity, factualism, exactness, infallibility, precision, perfection, rectitude, certainty, genuineness, accuracy, fact, the gospel truth*, straight dope*, inside track*, the nitty-gritty*, the facts*, the case*.

Ant. lie*, deception, falsehood.

2. [Integrity]

Syn. trustworthiness, honor, probity; see honesty 1 .

• in truth,

Syn. in fact, indeed, really; see truly 1 .

Syn.- truth suggests conformity with the facts or with reality, either as an idealized abstraction [ Pilate said to him, ``What is truth? "" ] or in actual application to statements, ideas, acts, etc. [ there is no truth in that rumor ] ; veracity , as applied to persons or to their utterances, connotes habitual adherence to the truth [ I cannot doubt your veracity] ; verity , as applied to things, connotes correspondence with fact or with reality [ the verity of that thesis ] ; verisimilitude , as applied to literary or artistic representations, suggests a degree of plausibility sufficient to induce audience belief [ the characterizations in that novel lack verisimilitude]

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

1. reality facts, factualness, actuality, veracity, verity, *gospel, *naked truth, *unvarnished truth, plain truth, truthfulness, accuracy. ''The heart of morality.''— Thomas Henry Huxley. ''The strongest argument.''—Sophocles. ''A jewel which should not be painted over; but it may be set to advantage and shown in a good light.''— George Santayana.

2. fact principle, rule, universal truth, certainty, truism, axiom, platitude.

ANT.: 1. fiction, imagination. 2. lie, falsehood

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. Correspondence with fact or truth: accuracy, correctness, exactitude, exactness, fidelity, veraciousness, veracity, veridicahty, verity. See TRUE. 2. Freedom from deceit or falseness: truthfulness, veracity. See TRUE. 3. The quality of being actual or factual: actuality, fact, fac-tuality, factualness, reality. See REAL.