ring of truth

English

Noun

ring of truth

1. The impression of being truthful; especially of a statement or literary work; verisimilitude.

   At first I wasn't even sure I could believe the story, but I later felt it had a ring of truth to it.

   • 1874, Edward Payson Roe, chapter 20, in Opening a Chestnut Burr:

     I am too well accustomed to the taking of evidence not to detect the ring of truth.

   • 1908, Edith Wharton, The Pretext:

     She could hear the ring of truth in young Dawnish's voice.

   • 2006 February 20, “Verbatim”, in Time:

     It is fiction. But it has the absolute ring of truth.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Noveria:

     Merchant Opold: This one promised compensation for services rendered. It humbly suggests that a sum of 250 credits would be most appropriate.
     Shepard: Would you have had any chance of getting this past customs without me? You can be a bit more generous.
     Merchant Opold: The other's words possess the discomforting ring of truth.
     Merchant Opold: This one could raise the sum to 500 credits. That is half this one's profit taken by the other. It can offer no more.

Usage notes

• Sometimes used (especially in the 19th and early-20th centuries) with reference to oral remarks or a manner of speaking, and sometimes used (especially since the mid-20th century) to refer to a written statement or narrative which strikes the reader as true.

Synonyms

• ring of authenticity
• believability
• credibility

Translations

impression of being truthful

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 真實性 / 真实性 (zh) (zhēnshíxìng)

• Finnish: todelta kuulostava (adjective)
• French: please add this translation if you can

See also

• truthiness