speaking truth
Saying what's real
Speaking truth is expressing what one genuinely believes to be true, especially when doing so requires courage or carries social risk.
The phrase often implies honesty in the face of pressure to remain silent or conform: She was fired for speaking truth about unsafe conditions.
It appears frequently in the longer form speaking truth to power, meaning to confront authority with uncomfortable facts.
- honestyTruthfulness, sincerity
- candorUnguarded truthfulness
- brutal honestyUnsparing directness in speech
- bluntDull or tactlessly direct
- frankOpen and direct
tell it like it is · sincere · forthright · no filter · authentic · confession · come clean · witness · under oath · testimony · revelation · expose · whistleblower · courage · vulnerable · raw · unfiltered · brutal
- honestyhonesty, candor, sincerity, dishonesty, frankness
- standing upstanding up, standing ground, fighting back, pushing back, voicing
- heroismbravery, valor, hero, courage, heroism
- virtuesintegrity, honesty, justice, courage, fairness
speaking truthlying
Stating known falsehoods
telling lies · deceiving · prevaricating · fabricating · falsifying
speaking truthdeceiving
Causing false belief
misleading · deluding · hoodwinking · gaslighting · bamboozling
speaking truthconcealing
Keeping something secret
covering up · withholding · obfuscating · stonewalling · keeping secrets
speak, speaks, spoken, speaker, speakers, speaking, speakable, unspeakable, speech