Word.ws English Dictionary

economical with the truth

Syllables: eco·no·mi·cal with the truth

economical with the truth adjective: not telling the whole truth, especially in order to present a false image of a situation; untruthful; lying. Often used with sarcasm or satire.

Adjective

economical with the truth

  1. (euphemistic, idiomatic) Not telling the whole truth, especially in order to present a false image of a situation; untruthful; lying. Often used with sarcasm or satire.
    • I would be acting economical with the truth if I were to tell you that I was enjoying myself.
    • A senior British civil servant, arguing that the book ‘Spycatcher’ should not be published, let slip how ‘being economical with the truth’ is an option in matters of government policy. The phrase became a headline in Australia, highlighting, as much as anything, British duplicity. In fact, it...1987, Andrew Kakabadse, Ron Ludlow, Susan Vinnicombe, Working in Organisations, Aldershot, Hants: Gower, →ISBN

Examples of economical with the truth in a sentence

  • A senior British civil servant, arguing that the book ‘Spycatcher’ should not be published, let slip how ‘being economical with the truth’ is an option in matters of government policy.1987, Andrew Kakabadse, Ron Ludlow, Susan Vinnicombe, Working in Organisations, Aldershot, Hants: Gower, →ISBN:
  • So, I am now asking you, was he economical with the truth?2013 November 6, House of Commons Treasury Committee (UK), Project Verde (HC 728-II (incorporating HC 300, Session 2013–14)), volume II...

Origin of economical with the truth

Believed to be from a quotation by the British-Irish statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke (1729–1797): “Falsehood and delusion are allowed in no case whatever: But, as in the exercise of all the virtues, there is an œconomy of truth. It is a sort of temperance, by which a man speaks truth with measure that he may speak it the longer.”

Questions about economical with the truth

What does economical with the truth mean?
Economical with the truth means not telling the whole truth, especially in order to present a false image of a situation; untruthful; lying. Often used with sarcasm or satire.
How do you use economical with the truth in a sentence?
A senior British civil servant, arguing that the book ‘Spycatcher’ should not be published, let slip how ‘being economical with the truth’ is an option in matters of government policy.
What part of speech is economical with the truth?
Economical with the truth is an adjective.

Words near economical with the truth in the dictionary

  1. economic science
  2. economic substance
  3. economic terrorism
  4. economic warfare
  5. economical
  6. economical with the truth
  7. economicalization
  8. economicalizations
  9. economicalize
  10. economicalized
  11. economicalizer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: economical with the truth (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-economical with the truth.ogg.

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