truth

Definition

True facts, genuine depiction or statements of reality.

Etymology

From Middle English trouthe, truthe, trewthe, treowthe, from Old English trēowþ, trīewþ (“truth, veracity, faith, fidelity, loyalty, honour, pledge, covenant”), from Proto-Germanic *triwwiþō (“promise, covenant, contract”), from Proto-Indo-European *drū- (“tree”), from Proto-Indo-European *deru- (“firm, solid”), equivalent to true + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Doublet of troth. Cognate with Norwegian trygd (“trustworthiness, security, insurance”), Icelandic tryggð (“loyalty, fidelity”).

Example Sentences

• "The truth is that our leaders knew a lot more than they were letting on."
• "The truth depends on, and is only arrived at, by a legitimate deduction from all the facts which are truly material."
• "The truth is that [Isaac] Newton was very much a product of his time. The colossus of science was not the first king of reason, Keynes wrote after reading Newton’s unpublished manuscripts. Instead “he was the last of the magicians”."

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