| candor, | honesty, | reality, | truthfulness, |
| frankness, | ingenuousness, | truth, | verity. |
Truth is primarily and verity is always a quality of thought or speech, especially of speech, as in exact conformity to fact. Veracity is properly a quality of a person, the habit of speaking and the disposition to speak the truth; a habitual liar may on some[368] occasions speak the truth, but that does not constitute him a man of veracity; on the other hand, a person of undoubted veracity may state (through ignorance or misinformation) what is not the truth. Truthfulness is a quality that may inhere either in a person or in his statements or beliefs. Candor, frankness, honesty, and ingenuousness are allied with veracity, and verity with truth, while truthfulness may accord with either. Truth in a secondary sense may be applied to intellectual action or moral character, in the former case becoming a close synonym of veracity; as, I know him to be a man of truth.
Antonyms:
| deceit, | duplicity, | falsehood, | fiction, | lie, |
| deception, | error, | falseness, | guile, | mendacity, |
| delusion, | fabrication, | falsity, | imposture, | untruth. |
Compare synonyms for [DECEPTION].
VERBAL.
Synonyms:
| literal, | oral, | vocal. |
Oral (L. os, the mouth) signifies uttered through the mouth or (in common phrase) by word of mouth; verbal (L. verbum, a word) signifies of, pertaining to, or connected with words, especially with words as distinguished from the ideas they convey; vocal (L. vox, the voice) signifies of or pertaining to the voice, uttered or modulated by the voice, and especially uttered with or sounding with full, resonant voice; literal (L. litera, a letter) signifies consisting of or expressed by letters, or according to the letter, in the broader sense of the exact meaning or requirement of the words used; what is called "the letter of the law" is its literal meaning without going behind what is expressed by the letters on the page. Thus oral applies to that which is given by spoken words in distinction from that which is written or printed; as, oral tradition; an oral examination. By this rule we should in strictness speak of an oral contract or an oral message, but verbal contract and verbal message, as indicating that which is by spoken rather than by written words, have become so fixed in the language that they can probably never be changed; this usage is also in line with other idioms of the language; as, "I give you my word," "a true man's word is as good as his bond," "by word of mouth," etc. A verbal translation may be oral or written, so that it is word for word; a literal translation follows the construction and idiom of the original as well as the words; a literal[369] translation is more than one that is merely verbal; both verbal and literal are opposed to free. In the same sense, of attending to words only, we speak of verbal criticism, a verbal change. Vocal has primary reference to the human voice; as, vocal sounds, vocal music; vocal may be applied within certain limits to inarticulate sounds given forth by other animals than man; as, the woods were vocal with the songs of birds; oral is never so applied, but is limited to articulate utterance regarded as having a definite meaning; as, an oral statement.