Meanings
present singular third person tells the truth · participle present telling the truth · participle past told the truth · past told the truth
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tell, truth.
That year a U.S. appeals court found the program Snowden had exposed was unlawful and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth.
2022 September 26, “Putin grants Russian citizenship to U.S. whistleblower Snowden”, in Mark Trevelyan, editor, Reuters, archived from the original on 26 Sep 2022, Europe
- idiomaticinformalUsed to positively assert the frank honesty of an associated statement of set of statements; equivalent to "to tell the truth".
Then it sneezed. Considering what it was smelling, that was no surprise. Tell the truth, I'd gotten so used to the jof jof dung that I didn't notice it anymore.
1991, Mike Sirota, Bicycling Through Space and TimeSynonyms: frankly, honestly, tell you the truth
Synonyms & antonyms
phraseUsed to positively assert the frank honesty of an associated statement of set of statements; equivalent to "to tell the truth".
Translations
Ancient Greek ἀληθεύω
- ἀληθεύω (alētheúō)asserting the frank honesty of an associated statement
Arabic صَدَقَ
- صَدَقَ (ṣadaqa)to tell the truth
Chinese Mandarin 老實說 /老实说
- 老實說 /老实说 (lǎoshíshuō)asserting the frank honesty of an associated statement
Finnish totta puhuen
- totta puhuenasserting the frank honesty of an associated statement
French dire la vérité, pour être honnête
- dire la véritéto tell the truth
- pour être honnêteasserting the frank honesty of an associated statement
Hungarian igazat mond, az igazat megvallva
- igazat mondto tell the truth
- az igazat megvallvaasserting the frank honesty of an associated statement
- őszintén szólvaasserting the frank honesty of an associated statement
- igazság szerintasserting the frank honesty of an associated statement
- az az igazság, hogyasserting the frank honesty of an associated statement
Polish mówić prawdę, powiedzieć prawdę
- mówić prawdęto tell the truth
- powiedzieć prawdęto tell the truth
- szczerze mówiącasserting the frank honesty of an associated statement
Russian че́стно говоря́
- че́стно говоря́ (čéstno govorjá)asserting the frank honesty of an associated statement
Spanish decir la verdad
- decir la verdadasserting the frank honesty of an associated statement
Swedish ärligt talat
- ärligt talatasserting the frank honesty of an associated statement
Cite this entry
tell the truth. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tell%20the%20truth
“tell the truth.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tell%20the%20truth. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tell the truth,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tell%20the%20truth.
Source: tell the truth on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.