English · Idiom Candidate B1

tell the truth

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Also seen as: to tell the truth

Sense 1

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Say something honest and factual

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Nói điều gì đó trung thực và có căn cứ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: convey factual information

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

She decided to tell the truth about what happened

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Sense 2

Meaning · English

Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review.

Common questions

What does “tell the truth” mean?

Say something honest and factual Literally: convey factual information

Is “tell the truth” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.