Half-truth

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A deceptive statement, especially one that is only partly true, is incomplete, misrepresents reality by telling part of the truth, or alters the time sequence of truths. countable, uncountable

    "The Minister no doubt would claim that the public has already expressed its opinion by deserting the trains. As we have said before, this is scarcely a half-truth. By and large, where there has been a decline the public has deserted the out-dated trains; [...]."

  2. 2
    a partially true statement intended to deceive or mislead wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
exaggerationfairy talefalsehoodfalsityfibfiction

Antonyms

All antonyms
truth

Example

More examples

"A half-truth is more pernicious than a lie."

Etymology

From half- + truth.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.