Idiom Breakdown

truth be told

English sentencesEnglish subjunctive expressions

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Definition

Used when admitting something one might otherwise lie about, e.g. to keep up appearances or be polite.

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Ellipsis of if the truth should be told.

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"I'm not sure if I can do this, truth be told."
"Actually, truth be told, I just don't like you."
"Well, certainly there are those who are more responsible than others - and they will be held accountable - but again, truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror."
"When I opened my laptop on Tuesday to take my first run at GPT-4, the new artificial intelligence language model from OpenAI, I was, truth be told, a little nervous."

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