home truth

American  

noun

1. an indisputable fact or basic truth, especially one whose accuracy may cause discomfort or embarrassment.

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home truth British  

noun

1. (often plural) an unpleasant fact told to a person about himself

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home truth Idioms  

1. A key or basic truth, especially one that is discomforting to acknowledge. For example, It's time you told a few home truths here, such as where your campaign finances actually came from. This expression uses home in the sense of “the very heart of a matter.” [c. 1700]

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Etymology

Origin of home truth

First recorded in 1705–15

Example Sentences

Left out, especially, is the home truth that the Catholic Church has changed already.

From New York Times • Apr. 9, 2018

Jefferson, Brandeis, the Roosevelts all recognized this home truth.

From The Guardian • Sep. 17, 2016

This is a Houellebecq home truth, but a stale, ungenerous one—one that does not extend the same consideration that many women have undoubtedly extended his work.

From Slate • Oct. 6, 2015

The point, the subtle message of the evening, was underlining a grandmotherly home truth: You get what you pay for.

From New York Times • Sep. 6, 2012

Like many men who take life easily, he had the knack of saying a home truth occasionally to those who felt themselves virtuously out of temper.

From Middlemarch by Eliot, George