TRUTHFUL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does truthful mean? 

• TRUTHFUL (adjective)
  The adjective TRUTHFUL has 2 senses:

1. expressing or given to expressing the truth

2. conforming to truth

  Familiarity information: TRUTHFUL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TRUTHFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Expressing or given to expressing the truth

Synonyms:

true; truthful

Context example:

a truthful person

Similar:

honest (marked by truth)

veracious (habitually speaking the truth)

Also:

honest; honorable (not disposed to cheat or defraud; not deceptive or fraudulent)

Antonym:

untruthful (not expressing or given to expressing the truth)

Derivation:

truthfulness (the quality of being truthful)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Conforming to truth

Context example:

a truthful statement

Similar:

true (consistent with fact or reality; not false)

 Context examples 

Mind you, she is a truthful woman, Mr. Holmes, and whatever trouble there may have been in her past life it has been no fault of hers.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Although I think I had never really feared it, in any season of cool reflection, it was an unspeakable relief to me to have this assurance from her own truthful lips.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Jane, I ever like your tone of voice: it still renews hope, it sounds so truthful.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter—often an unconscious, but still a truthful interpreter—in the eye.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)