cold truth
Unvarnished painful reality
Cold truth is an unpleasant fact delivered without softening or comfort.
The coldness suggests both emotional detachment in the telling and the chill of receiving unwelcome reality: The cold truth is that most startups fail.
Sometimes intensified as cold hard truth, emphasizing its unyielding nature.
- harshUnpleasantly severe or rough
- brutalSavagely harsh or severe
- brutal honestyUnsparing directness in speech
- starkSevere and unadorned
- bluntDull or tactlessly direct
unvarnished · reality · bitter · bitter pill · honest · raw · hard facts · facts · sobering · hard · painful · revelation · wake-up · rude awakening · unflinching · candid · icy · piercing
- truthsfacts, fact, reality, verity, verities
- disillusionmentdisillusionment, disenchantment, disillusion, lost innocence, lost faith
- candorfrankness, directness, bluntness, candor, straightforwardness