Word.ws English Dictionary

truth to tell

truth to tell interjection: actually; frankly; as a matter of fact.

Interjection

truth to tell

  1. (set phrase) Actually; frankly; as a matter of fact.
    • Truth to tell, the supper had been waiting a most unreasonable time.1838, Charles Dickens, chapter 51, in Oliver Twist
    • Haggerty had his trouble for nothing. There was no clue whatever in Lord Monckton's suite. . . . Truth to tell, Haggerty had not expected to find anything.1915, Harold MacGrath, chapter 13, in The Voice In The Fog

Examples of truth to tell in a sentence

  • And yet, truth to tell, the majority of Catholic schools hadn't really toed the line.2008 April 17, David Van Biema, “The Pope on Academic Freedom”, in Time, retrieved 07 Jul 2015:
  • Well, truth to tell I am more than a simple fan for having studied the act of breaking wind for most of my life I consider myself to be far more than a simple aficionado[…]2012, Dougie Brimson, Art of Fart, →ISBN:

Synonyms of truth to tell

Questions about truth to tell

What does truth to tell mean?
Truth to tell means actually; frankly; as a matter of fact.
How do you use truth to tell in a sentence?
And yet, truth to tell, the majority of Catholic schools hadn't really toed the line.
What part of speech is truth to tell?
Truth to tell is an interjection.

Words near truth to tell in the dictionary

  1. truth serums
  2. truth squad
  3. truth squads
  4. truth table
  5. truth tables
  6. truth to tell
  7. truth tree
  8. truth trees
  9. truth value
  10. truth values
  11. truth will out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: truth to tell (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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