English

Adjective

truthy ‎(comparative truthier, superlative truthiest)

1. (obsolete) Faithful; true. [19th c.]
   • c. 1800, J. H. Colls, Theodore:

     You […] are afraid Theodore your sweetheart shouldn't prove truthy.

2. (US, colloquial) Only superficially true; that is asserted or felt instinctively to be true, with no recourse to facts. [from 21st c.]
   • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin 2012, p. 595:

     Historians today point out that each of these ringing assertions was, at best, truthy.

3. (computing, programming) Evaluating to true in a Boolean context.
   • 2012, David Flanagan, JavaScript Pocket Reference (page 40)

     In JavaScript, any expression or statement that expects a boolean value will work with a truthy or falsy value, so the fact that && does not always evaluate to true or false does not cause practical problems.

Synonyms

• faithful, honest
• truthlike, truthful, truthsome, veridical

Antonyms

• (computing): falsy

Derived terms

• truthiness

References

• James A. H. Murray [et al.], editor (1884–1928) A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, OCLC 15566697; and The Oxford English Dictionary; being a Corrected Re-issue with an Introduction, Supplement, and Bibliography of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (the First Supplement), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933, OCLC 2748467.

See also

• facty