half-truth

half-truth — noun

1. a statement that mixes true facts with false information or leaves out important

1.nounB2
Definition

a statement that mixes true facts with false information or leaves out important details, with the aim of making someone believe something that is not completely accurate

Example

The politician gave a half-truth — true, but missing the most important facts.

half-truth followed by contrasting clause

Renata realised the advertisement was a half-truth when she read the small print.

realise something is a half-truth

Common collocations
  • a half-truth about
  • tell a half-truth
  • spread a half-truth
  • contain a half-truth
  • based on a half-truth
Synonyms
  • lie

    stronger: a lie is completely false, while a half-truth contains some true elements

  • deception

    broader: deception can refer to any misleading act, not just a spoken statement

  • distortion

    focuses on the truth being twisted rather than partially hidden

Antonyms
  • truth

    a statement that is completely accurate and does not omit important facts

  • fact

    a piece of information that can be verified as true

Grammar Patterns

a half-truth about + noun phrase

tell/spread a half-truth

contain a half-truth

Usage Note

Frequently used in political, commercial, and media contexts where someone benefits from presenting an incomplete picture without telling an outright lie.

Common Mistakes

He told a half-truth, which means every word was false.
He told a half-truth, which means some parts were true but key facts were left out.
A half-truth is only partly false; at least some of the statement is accurate.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words refer to a lack of honesty, but they differ in scope and severity. A half-truth is a statement that contains some true information while deliberately omitting or misrepresenting other facts — it is misleading precisely because it cannot be dismissed as wholly false. A lie is a complete falsehood told with the intention to deceive; it carries stronger moral judgment. Deception is the broadest term — it covers any act (not just speech) that causes someone to believe something untrue. A distortion twists the truth by presenting facts out of context or exaggerating certain aspects, without necessarily inventing anything out of whole cloth. For example, a car advertisement that says "20 km per litre" without mentioning that result was achieved under ideal test conditions is a half-truth. The same ad would be a lie if the figure was entirely made up, and a distortion if the test conditions were stretched but not fabricated.

half-truth ↗lie ↗deception ↗distortion ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • a half-truth and a whole lie
  • nothing but half-truths

Prepositions

Etymology

Old EnglishEnglish

The word 'half-truth' combines 'half' (from Old English 'healf', meaning one of two equal parts) with 'truth' (from Old English 'trēowþ', meaning faithfulness or honesty). The compound became common in English during the early 1900s, especially in political writing, to describe statements that are technically true but deliberately incomplete or misleading.