Word.ws English Dictionary

little white lie

little white lie is the alternative form of white lie.

Meaning of white lie

Noun

white lie (plural white lies)

  1. (idiomatic) A deliberately untrue statement which is intended to produce a favorable result; especially, one which is judged to be better than an overhonest alternative, as for example to remain polite in a superficial social exchange, or to pick one's battles.
    • The prevarication and white lies which a mind that keeps itself ambitiously pure is as uneasy under as a great artist under the false touches that no eye detects but his own, are worn as lightly as mere trimmings when once the actions have become a lie.1861, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XIII, in Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, part I, page 239
    Synonyms:
    fib

Forms of little white lie

plurallittle white lies

Questions about little white lie

What is little white lie the alternative form of?
Little white lie is the alternative form of white lie.

Words near little white lie in the dictionary

  1. Little Walsingham
  2. Little Weighton
  3. Little Welnetham
  4. Little Wenlock
  5. Little Whelnetham
  6. little white lie
  7. little white lies
  8. little white mushroom
  9. little white shakers syndrome
  10. Little Wilbraham
  11. Little Wobby

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: little white lie (page history and authors); white lie (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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