truism

[troo-iz-uhm]

noun

1. a self-evident, obvious truth.

   Synonyms: platitude, cliché

truism

/ ˈtruːɪzəm /

noun

1. an obvious truth; platitude

Confusables Note

Contrary to what some people believe, the word truism is not a more elegant word for truth. While the word truth can occasionally be used to refer to a “truism,” since truisms are often true, the reverse—the use of truism to mean “truth”—is unwise. Truism stands for a certain kind of truth—a cliché, a platitude, something so self-evident that it is hardly worth mentioning. One can use it to accuse another writer or speaker of saying something so obvious or evident and trite that pointing it out is pointless. To say that a statement is a truism when you intend to compliment it as truthful, factual, even provable, will merely serve to confuse those who know that calling something a truism is not praise, but a criticism or insult. Note, however, that truism is used in a technical sense in mathematics or philosophy for restating something that is already known from its terms or premises. Examples of such truisms include: “Men are not women” and “Since the circumference of a circle equals twice the radius multiplied by π (2π r ), it equals the diameter multiplied by π (π d ).”

Other Word Forms

• truistic adjective
• truistical adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of truism¹

First recorded in 1700–10; true + -ism

Word History and Origins

Origin of truism¹

C18: from _true + _-ism

Example Sentences

The mayor seems not to have heard of the truism that if you tax something you get less of it.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

There’s a truism that the Irish vote their values in presidential elections and their pocketbooks when electing the actual government, which may well hold true.

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This matters, because it’s been a truism on the far-right for decades now that capturing the culture is the key to obtaining their larger political goals.

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Parenthood - not to be confused with the 1989 Steven Martin family comedy film - mines the rich well of universal truisms around parenting, he notes, something that lends itself nicely to storytelling.

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Your favorite truism about the power of history may apply here; mine comes courtesy of Salon contributor Mike Lofgren: “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat famous quotations.”

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