Word.ws English Dictionary

speaks truth to power

speaks truth to power is the third-person singular simple present indicative of speak truth to power.

Meaning of speak truth to power

Verb

speak truth to power (third-person singular simple present speaks truth to power, present participle speaking truth to power, simple past spoke truth to power, past participle spoken truth to power)

  1. To address facts to an authority or a superior, especially in the face of risk to oneself.
    • He was tired of corporate politics and craved a setting where people spoke truth to power, but, he said, it took him a while to get used to dealing with Dalio.2011 July 18, John Cassidy, “Mastering the Machine”, in The New Yorker, →ISSN

Questions about speaks truth to power

What is speaks truth to power the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Speaks truth to power is the third-person singular simple present indicative of speak truth to power.

Words near speaks truth to power in the dictionary

  1. speaks out
  2. speaks out of turn
  3. speaks someone's language
  4. speaks to
  5. speaks too soon
  6. speaks truth to power
  7. speaks up
  8. speaks volumes
  9. speaks well of
  10. speaks with a forked tongue
  11. speakworthy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: speaks truth to power (page history and authors); speak truth to power (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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