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Truth vs Righteousness - What's the difference?

truth | righteousness |

In countable terms the difference between truth and righteousness

is that truth is something acknowledged to be true; a true statement or axiom while righteousness is a righteous act, or righteous quality.

As nouns the difference between truth and righteousness

is that truth is the state or quality of being true to someone or something while righteousness is the quality or state of being righteous; holiness; purity; uprightness; rectitude. Righteousness, as used in Scripture and theology, in which it chiefly occurs, is nearly equivalent to holiness, comprehending holy principles and affections of heart, and conformity of life to the divine law.

As a verb truth

is to assert as true; to declare, to speak truthfully.

truth

English

Alternative forms

* trewth (obsolete)

Noun

(order of senses) (en-noun)
  • The state or quality of being true to someone or something.
  • (label) Faithfulness, fidelity.
  • * (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (1772-1834)
    • Alas! they had been friends in youth, / But whispering tongues can poison truth .
  • (label) A pledge of loyalty or faith.
  • True facts, genuine depiction or statements of reality.
  • * (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (1772-1834)
    • The truth depends on, or is only arrived at by, a legitimate deduction from all the facts which are truly material.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Magician’s brain , passage=The truth is that [Isaac] Newton was very much a product of his time. The colossus of science was not the first king of reason, Keynes wrote after reading Newton’s unpublished manuscripts. Instead “he was the last of the magicians”.}}
  • Conformity to fact or reality; correctness, accuracy.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01, author=Robert M. Pringle, volume=100, issue=1, page=31, magazine=(American Scientist), title= How to Be Manipulative
    • , passage=As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds.}}
  • Conformity to rule; exactness; close correspondence with an example, mood, model, etc.
  • * John Mortimer (1656?-1736)
    • Ploughs, to go true, depend much on the truth of the ironwork.
  • That which is real, in a deeper sense; spiritual or ‘genuine’ reality.
  • * 1820 , (John Keats), (Ode on a Grecian Urn)
    • Beauty is truth', ' truth beauty, - that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
  • (label) Something acknowledged to be true; a true statement or axiom.
  • * 1813 , (Jane Austen), (Pride and Prejudice)
    • It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
  • Topness. (See also truth quark.)

    • Synonyms

    * See

    Antonyms

    * falsehood, falsity, lie, nonsense, untruth, half-truth

    Derived terms

    * half-truth * if truth be told * tell the truth * truthful * truthiness * truthless * truth or dare * truth serum * truthy

    Related terms

    * true * untrue

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To assert as true; to declare, to speak truthfully.
    • Had they [the ancients] dreamt this, they would have truthed it heaven. — Ford.
    1966', ''You keep lying, when you oughta be '''truthin' — Nancy Sinatra, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"

    See also

    * (wikipedia)

    Statistics

    *

    righteousness

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The quality or state of being righteous; holiness; purity; uprightness; rectitude. Righteousness, as used in Scripture and theology, in which it chiefly occurs, is nearly equivalent to holiness, comprehending holy principles and affections of heart, and conformity of life to the divine law.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)
    • , chapter=4, title= A Cuckoo in the Nest , passage=By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness , was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.}}
  • (countable) A righteous act, or righteous quality.
  • * (w) lxiv. 6.
    • All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
  • The act or conduct of one who is righteous.
  • * (Psalms) cvi. 3.
    • Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth rightness at all times.
  • (theology) The state of being right with God; justification; the work of Christ, which is the ground justification.
  • * 1594-7 , (Richard Hooker), '', A Discourse, Section 21
    • There are two kinds of Christian righteousness : the one without us, which we have by imputation; the other in us, which consisteth of faith, hope, and charity, and other Christian virtues.
  • * 1646-7 , (Westminster Shorter Catechism) , Q.33
    • Only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

    Synonyms

    * rectitude, uprightness, holiness, godliness, equity, justice, rightfulness, integrity, honesty, faithfulness