Word.ws English Dictionary

truth-telling

truth-telling noun: the act of telling the truth.

Noun

truth-telling (uncountable)

  1. The act of telling the truth.
    • Or would he sharpen his rapier wit enough to do what I think he does best: hilarious social-political truth-telling that hits its targets and avoids the punching-down cheap shots against groups that are least able to defend themselves — such as transgender folks, the target that sparked protests?2022 November 19, Clarence Page, “Sometimes offensive comedy is just lazy laughs”, in Chicago Tribune

Adjective

truth-telling (comparative more truth-telling, superlative most truth-telling)

  1. Telling the truth; honest, frank.
    • Each self-denying single woman, like the heroine of “Some Tame Gazelle,” Pym’s first novel, is deemed “fortunate in needing very little to make her happy,” though the blunt, truthtelling housekeeper generally knows better.2022 May 30, Thomas Mallon, “When Barbara Pym Couldn’t Get Published”, in The New Yorker

Forms of truth-telling

Noun
alternative formtruthtelling
Adjective
comparativemore truth-telling
superlativemost truth-telling

Origin of truth-telling

From truth + telling.

Questions about truth-telling

What does truth-telling mean?
Truth-telling means the act of telling the truth.
What part of speech is truth-telling?
Truth-telling can be a noun or an adjective.

Words near truth-telling in the dictionary

  1. truth values
  2. truth will out
  3. truth window
  4. truth-functional
  5. truth-functional logic
  6. truth-telling
  7. Truthall
  8. truthaphobia
  9. truthbearer
  10. truthbearers
  11. truthed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: truth-telling (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: “truth-telling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/truth-telling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.