Word.ws English Dictionary

spoke truth to power

spoke truth to power is the simple past 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 spoke truth to power

What is spoke truth to power the simple past of?
Spoke truth to power is the simple past of speak truth to power.

Words near spoke truth to power in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spoke 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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