Meaning & use
telling half truths
Last updated
“telling half truths” is a form of “tell half truths”.
Meaning
phraseidiomdisapproving
saying things that are partly true but leave out important facts, so people are misled
Grammar: Use it as a verb phrase: someone tells half truths. It can also be a noun phrase: half truths.
Patterns
- tell half truths
- be telling half truths
- a half truth
The manager was telling half truths to avoid taking responsibility.
If you keep telling half truths, people will stop trusting you.
He told a half truth about where he had been that night.
Word forms
| base form | tell half truths |
|---|---|
| singular | half truth |
Common combinations
- tell half truths
- Politicians often tell half truths during a campaign.
- a half truth
- What he said was a half truth, not a complete lie.
- be accused of telling half truths
- The company was accused of telling half truths about its profits.
Synonyms and how they differ
- lie
- A lie is completely false, while a half truth contains some truth but hides the rest.
- mislead
- This focuses on the effect of making someone believe something false, not on the words themselves.
Opposites
Word family
- half-true adjective
- partly true but not completely true
Commonly confused: telling half truths or half-truth?
telling half truths vs half-truth
The hyphenated form is a noun; 'telling half truths' uses the same idea as a verb phrase.
Practice
What does 'telling half truths' mean?
Choose one answer.
A half truth is partly true but not complete, so it can mislead people. A completely false statement would be a lie, not a half truth.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “telling half truths”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.