Truth-telling

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of telling the truth. uncountable

    "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?"

Adjective
  1. 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."

Example

More examples

"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?"

Etymology

From truth + telling.

More for "truth-telling"

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