partial truth
Not the whole story
A partial truth is a statement that contains some accurate information while omitting or distorting other relevant facts.
The incompleteness may be deliberate—a way of misleading without technically lying—or simply reflect limited knowledge.
What he told us was only a partial truth.
The phrase often carries an accusatory edge, suggesting someone is being evasive or manipulative.
- white lieHarmless minor falsehood
- omissionFailure to include
- spinRapid rotation around axis
- misleadingCausing false beliefs
- deceptionIntentional misleading of others
smoke and mirrors · distortion · selective · cherry picking · evasion · cover-up · fib · misdirection · withholding · varnished · sugarcoated · slant · bent · twisted · incomplete · fragment · kernel · grain
- deceptionlie, lies, lying, fake, fraud
- cherry-pickinghandpicking, stacking the deck, selection bias
- hearsayrumor, gossip, hearsay, whisper, buzz
- fuzzy logicfuzzy logic, fuzzy boundaries, hedge, hedges, concentration
- nonclassical logicfuzzy logic
partial truthwhole truth
Complete, unvarnished account
full disclosure · unvarnished truth · nothing but the truth · naked truth · the whole story
partial, truth, part, partiality, partially, impartial, impartiality, impartially, partition