Word.ws English Dictionary

talk truth to power

talk truth to power is the alternative form 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

Forms of talk truth to power

third-person singular presenttalks truth to power
present participletalking truth to power
past participletalked truth to power
pasttalked truth to power

Questions about talk truth to power

What is talk truth to power the alternative form of?
Talk truth to power is the alternative form of speak truth to power.

Words near talk truth to power in the dictionary

  1. talk to Ralph on the big white telephone
  2. talk to the fist
  3. talk to the hand
  4. talk to the hand 'cause the face ain't listening
  5. talk trash
  6. talk truth to power
  7. talk turkey
  8. talk up
  9. talk'd
  10. talk-about-able
  11. talk-aholic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: talk 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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Cite this entry: “talk truth to power.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/talk_truth_to_power. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.