half-truth
Americannoun
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a statement that is only partly true, especially one intended to deceive, evade blame, or the like.
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a statement that fails to divulge the whole truth.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of half-truth
First recorded in 1650–60
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Johnson’s mother, Melissa Johnson, on Wednesday said Davis “painted a negative half-truth about our son” when he described Johnson immediately after the shooting as someone with a “significant violent criminal history.”
From Seattle Times • Mar. 23, 2023
I think it’s worth exploring at what point a half-truth is more dangerous than a lie.”
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 29, 2022
Just a day after the intelligence officer’s report, the Army offered a clarifying half-truth: It identified the object as a crashed weather balloon.
From Slate • Jun. 29, 2021
Who among us hasn't engaged with a story that has no predictable ending, with a half-truth that, upon further examination, is more fiction than fact?
From Salon • Jun. 14, 2020
That wasn’t so much a lie as a half-truth.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
