truth

truth
    n 1: a fact that has been verified; "at last he knew the truth";
         "the truth is that he didn't want to do it"
    2: conformity to reality or actuality; "they debated the truth
       of the proposition"; "the situation brought home to us the
       blunt truth of the military threat"; "he was famous for the
       truth of his portraits"; "he turned to religion in his search
       for eternal verities" [syn: {truth}, {the true}, {verity},
       {trueness}] [ant: {falseness}, {falsity}]
    3: a true statement; "he told the truth"; "he thought of
       answering with the truth but he knew they wouldn't believe
       it" [syn: {truth}, {true statement}] [ant: {falsehood},
       {falsity}, {untruth}]
    4: the quality of being near to the true value; "he was
       beginning to doubt the accuracy of his compass"; "the lawyer
       questioned the truth of my account" [syn: {accuracy},
       {truth}] [ant: {inaccuracy}]
    5: United States abolitionist and feminist who was freed from
       slavery and became a leading advocate of the abolition of
       slavery and for the rights of women (1797-1883) [syn:
       {Truth}, {Sojourner Truth}]
    

Truth \Truth\, n.; pl. {Truths}. [OE. treuthe, trouthe, treowpe,
   AS. tre['o]w?. See {True}; cf. {Troth}, {Betroth}.]
   1. The quality or being true; as:
      (a) Conformity to fact or reality; exact accordance with
          that which is, or has been; or shall be.
          [1913 Webster]
      (b) Conformity to rule; exactness; close correspondence
          with an example, mood, object of imitation, or the
          like.
          [1913 Webster]

                Plows, to go true, depend much on the truth of
                the ironwork.                     --Mortimer.
          [1913 Webster]
      (c) Fidelity; constancy; steadfastness; faithfulness.
          [1913 Webster]

                Alas! they had been friends in youth,
                But whispering tongues can poison truth.
                                                  --Coleridge.
          [1913 Webster]
      (d) The practice of speaking what is true; freedom from
          falsehood; veracity.
          [1913 Webster]

                If this will not suffice, it must appear
                That malice bears down truth.     --Shak.
          [1913 Webster]

   2. That which is true or certain concerning any matter or
      subject, or generally on all subjects; real state of
      things; fact; verity; reality.
      [1913 Webster]

            Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor.
                                                  --Zech. viii.
                                                  16.
      [1913 Webster]

            I long to know the truth here of at large. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            The truth depends on, or is only arrived at by, a
            legitimate deduction from all the facts which are
            truly material.                       --Coleridge.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. A true thing; a verified fact; a true statement or
      proposition; an established principle, fixed law, or the
      like; as, the great truths of morals.
      [1913 Webster]

            Even so our boasting . . . is found a truth. --2
                                                  Cor. vii. 14.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. Righteousness; true religion.
      [1913 Webster]

            Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. --John i. 17.
      [1913 Webster]

            Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.
                                                  --John xvii.
                                                  17.
      [1913 Webster]

   {In truth}, in reality; in fact.

   {Of a truth}, in reality; certainly.

   {To do truth}, to practice what God commands.
      [1913 Webster]

            He that doeth truth cometh to the light. --John iii.
                                                  21.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Truth \Truth\, v. t.
   To assert as true; to declare. [R.]
   [1913 Webster]

         Had they [the ancients] dreamt this, they would have
         truthed it heaven.                       --Ford.
   [1913 Webster]
    

TRUTH, n.  An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance. 
Discovery of truth is the sole purpose of philosophy, which is the
most ancient occupation of the human mind and has a fair prospect of
existing with increasing activity to the end of time.
    

Truth
Used in various senses in Scripture. In Prov. 12:17, 19, it
denotes that which is opposed to falsehood. In Isa. 59:14, 15,
Jer. 7:28, it means fidelity or truthfulness. The doctrine of
Christ is called "the truth of the gospel" (Gal. 2:5), "the
truth" (2 Tim. 3:7; 4:4). Our Lord says of himself, "I am the
way, and the truth" (John 14:6).
    

TRUTH. The actual state of things. 
     2. In contracts, the parties are bound to toll the truth in their 
dealings, and a deviation from it will generally avoid the contract; Newl. 
on Contr. 352-3; 2 Burr. 1011; 3 Campb. 285; and even concealment, or 
suppressio veri, will be considered fraudulent in the contract of insurance. 
1 Marsh. on Ins. 464; Peake's N. P. C. 115; 3 Campb. 154, 506. 
     3. In giving his testimony, a witness is required to tell the truth, 
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; for the object in the 
examination of matters of fact, is to ascertain truth. 
     4. When a defendant is sued civilly for slander or a libel, he may 
justify by giving the truth in evidence; but when a criminal prosecution is 
instituted by the commonwealth for a libel, he cannot generally justify by 
giving the truth in evidence. 
     5. The constitutions of several of the United States have made special 
provisions in favor of giving the truth in evidence in prosecutions for 
libels, under particular circumstances. In the constitutions of 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, it 
is declared, that in publications for libels on men in respect to their 
public official conduct, the truth may be given in evidence, when the matter 
published was proper for public information. The constitution of New York 
declares, that in all prosecutions or indictments for libels, the truth may 
be given in evidence to the jury; and if it shall appear to the jury that 
the matter charged as libelous, is true, and was published with good motives 
and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted. By constitutional 
provision in Mississippi and Missouri, and by legislative enactment in New 
Jersey, Arkansas, Tennessee, Act of 1805, c. 6: and Vermont, Rev. Stat. tit. 
11, c. 25, s.  68; the right to give the truth in evidence has been more 
extended; it applies to all prosecutions or indictments for libels, without 
any qualifications annexed in restraint of the privilege. Cooke on Def. 61. 
    

85 Moby Thesaurus words for "truth":
      a priori truth, absolute certainty, absolute credibility,
      absoluteness, accomplished fact, accuracy, actuality, actually,
      assurance, assuredness, authenticity, axiom, brocard, candor,
      certain knowledge, certainness, certainty, certitude, correctness,
      credibility, dead certainty, definiteness, determinacy,
      determinateness, dictate, dictum, fact, facts, factuality,
      fait accompli, formula, genuineness, golden rule, gospel,
      grim reality, historicity, in fact, in truth, ineluctability,
      inerrability, inerrancy, inevitability, infallibilism,
      infallibility, law, necessity, nonambiguity, noncontingency,
      not a dream, objective existence, positiveness, postulate,
      precision, predestination, predetermination, principium, principle,
      probatum, proposition, proved fact, reality, really, rightness,
      rule, self-evident truth, settled principle, sureness, surety,
      theorem, trueness, truism, truly, truth-loving, truth-speaking,
      truth-telling, truthfulness, unambiguity, unequivocalness,
      universal truth, univocity, unmistakableness, veraciousness,
      veracity, veridicality, verity