true

From Middle English trewe, from Old English trīewe, (Mercian) trēowe (“trusty, faithful”), from Proto-Germanic *triwwiz (compare Saterland Frisian trjou (“honest”), Dutch getrouw and trouw, German treu, Norwegian and Swedish trygg (“safe, secure’”), from pre-Germanic *drewh₂yos, from Proto-Indo-European *drewh₂- (“steady, firm”) (compare Irish dearbh (“sure”), Old Prussian druwis (“faith”), Ancient Greek δροόν (droón, “firm”)), extension of *dóru (“tree”). More at tree.

For the semantic development, compare Latin robustus (“tough”) from robur (“red oak”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tɹuː/
• (US) enPR: trōō IPA^(key): /tɹu/, [t͡ʃɹu]
• (archaic) IPA^(key): /tɹjuː/, /tɹɪw/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -uː

true (comparative truer or more true, superlative truest or most true)

1. (of a statement) Conforming to the actual state of reality or fact; factually correct.

   This is a true story.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:

     The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; […] . Now she had come to look upon the matter in its true proportions, and her anticipation of a possible chance of teaching him a lesson was a pleasure to behold.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess:

     The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.

   • 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. […] One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries, as policing has spread and the routine carrying of weapons has diminished. Modern society may not have done anything about war. But peace is a lot more peaceful.

2. Conforming to a rule or pattern; exact; accurate.

   a true copy;   a true likeness of the original

   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir Walter Scott

     making his eye, foot, and hand keep true time

3. (logic) Of the state in Boolean logic that indicates an affirmative or positive result.

   "A and B" is true if and only if "A" is true and "B" is true.

4. Loyal, faithful.

   He’s turned out to be a true friend.

5. Genuine.

   This is true Parmesan cheese.

   • 1568, William Cornishe [i.e., William Cornysh], “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe otherwise Called Nyshwhete Chapelman with the Most Famose and Noble Kyng Henry the VII. His Reygne the XIX. Yere the Moneth of July. A Treatise betwene Trouth, and Information.”, in John Skelton; J[ohn] S[tow], editor, Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, Imprinted at London: In Fletestreate, neare vnto Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe, OCLC 54747393; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: Printed for C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, 1736, OCLC 731569711, page 290:

     The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge

   • 2012 January 1, Henry Petroski, “The Washington Monument”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 16:

     The Washington Monument is often described as an obelisk, and sometimes even as a “true obelisk,” even though it is not. A true obelisk is a monolith, a pylon formed out of a single piece of stone.

6. Legitimate.

   The true king has returned!

7. (of an aim or missile in archery, shooting, golf, etc.) Accurate; following a path toward the target.
   • 1801, Mrs. Cowley, “The siege of Acre”, in The British Critic, volume 17-18, page 521:

     Whate'er the weapon, still his aim was true, Nor e'er in vain the fatal bullet flew.

   • 2008, Carl Hiaasen, The downhill lie: a hacker's return to a ruinous sport, page 188:

     I held my breath and struck the ball. My aim was true, but I didn't give the damn thing enough gas. It died three feet from the cup.

8. (chiefly probability) Fair, unbiased, not loaded.
   • 1990, William W. S. Wei, Time Series Analysis, →ISBN, page 8:

     Let ${\displaystyle Z_{t}}$ be twice the value of a true die shown on the ${\displaystyle t}$ -th toss.

   • 2006, Judith A. Baer, Leslie Friedman Goldstein, The Constitutional and Legal Rights of Women: Cases in Law and Social Change →ISBN

     In fact, few profit margins can be predicted with such reliability as those provided by a true roulette wheel or other game of chance.

   • 2012, Peter Sprent, Applied Nonparametric Statistical Methods, Springer Science & Business Media →ISBN, page 5

     We do not reject, because 9 heads and 3 tails is in a set of reasonably likely results when we toss a true coin.

• (of a statement, logic, loyal): false
• untrue

• truth

true (not comparable)

1. (of shooting, throwing etc) Accurately.
   • 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:

     Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.

   this gun shoots true

true (countable and uncountable, plural trues)

1. (uncountable) The state of being in alignment.
   • 1904, Lester Gray French, Machinery, Volume 10:

     Some toolmakers are very careless when drilling the first hole through work that is to be bored, claiming that if the drilled hole comes out of true somewhat it can be brought true with the boring tool.

   • 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald, O Russet Witch! in Tales of the Jazz Age:

     She clapped her hands happily, and he thought how pretty she was really, that is, the upper part of her face—from the bridge of the nose down she was somewhat out of true.

   • 1988, Lois McMaster Bujold, Falling Free, Baen Publishing, →ISBN, page 96:

     The crate shifted on its pallet, out of sync now. As the lift withdrew, the crate skidded with it, dragged by friction and gravity, skewing farther and farther from true.

   • 1994, Bruce Palmer, How to Restore Your Harley-Davidson:

     The strength and number of blows depends on how far out of true the shafts are.

2. (uncountable, obsolete) Truth.
3. (countable, obsolete) A pledge or truce.

• in true
• out of true

true (third-person singular simple present trues, present participle trueing or truing, simple past and past participle trued)

1. To straighten.

   He trued the spokes of the bicycle wheel.

2. To make even, level, symmetrical, or accurate, align; adjust.

   We spent all night truing up the report.

• Often followed by up.

• true-up

• -uret

From Old Norse þrúga

true (imperative tru, infinitive at true, present tense truer, past tense truede, perfect tense har/er truet)

1. to threaten

• “true” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “true” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

true

1. Alternative form of trewe

From Old Norse þrúga

true (imperative tru, present tense truer, passive trues, simple past and past participle trua or truet)

1. to threaten

• truende
• utrydningstruet

• trussel

• “true” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• trua, truge

From Old Norse þrúga

true (present tense truar, past tense trua, past participle trua, passive infinitive truast, present participle truande, imperative tru/true)

1. to threaten

• trussel

• “true” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.