ring of truth

ring of truth

1. The trust-inspiring sound, tenor, or impression of being truthful.
   • 1874, Edward Payson Roe, Opening a Chestnut Burr, ch. 20,

     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, "Verbatim," Time, 20 Feb.,

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

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, OCLC 246633669, 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.

• 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.

• believability
• credibility