"kernel of truth" meaning in English

See kernel of truth in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-kernel of truth.ogg [Australia] Forms: kernels of truth [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|kernels of truth}} kernel of truth (plural kernels of truth)
  1. (idiomatic) A core accuracy at the heart of a claim or narrative which also contains dubious or fictitious elements. Tags: idiomatic Translations (Translations): kern van waarheid [feminine] (Dutch), totuuden jyvä (Finnish), part de vérité [feminine] (French), fond de vérité [masculine] (French), ჭეშმარიტების მარცვალი (č̣ešmariṭebis marcvali) (Georgian), სიმართლის მარცვალი (simartlis marcvali) (Georgian), Körnchen Wahrheit [neuter] (German), szemernyi igazság (Hungarian), sannleikskorn [neuter] (Icelandic), iarracht den fhírinne [feminine] (Irish), ziarno prawdy [neuter] (Polish), зерно́ и́стины (zernó ístiny) [neuter] (Russian)
    Sense id: en-kernel_of_truth-en-noun-PhvMIhf3 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for kernel of truth meaning in English (3.8kB)

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  "lang_code": "en",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "There may be a kernel of truth in the story of how George Washington confessed to his father that he chopped down the cherry tree."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1863 October 24, “Latin and Cricket”, in The Albion, A Journal of News, Politics and Literature, volume 41, number 48, New York, page 513",
          "text": "Whether the Duke of Wellington really said of the Eton playing-fields that it was there that the battle Waterloo was won, may fairly be doubted. The story has many elements of the myth about it; but, like other myths, it has a kernel of truth.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "1955, F. Schmidl, \"The problem of scientific validation in psycho-analytic interpretation,\" International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, vol 36 no 2 (Mar/Apr), pp. 105-113.\nThis statement will be unacceptable to many biographers and historians, but there seems to be a definite kernel of truth in it."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003 September 7, “The New Season/Film: Big Fish”, in The New York Times, page AR74",
          "text": "It's about a young man (Billy Crudup) who tries to distill the true biography of his dying father (Albert Finney) by looking for the kernels of truth in the many tall tales he has told.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A core accuracy at the heart of a claim or narrative which also contains dubious or fictitious elements."
      ],
      "id": "en-kernel_of_truth-en-noun-PhvMIhf3",
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          "claim",
          "claim"
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        [
          "narrative",
          "narrative"
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        [
          "dubious",
          "dubious"
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          "fictitious",
          "fictitious"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A core accuracy at the heart of a claim or narrative which also contains dubious or fictitious elements."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "kern van waarheid"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "totuuden jyvä"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "part de vérité"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "fond de vérité"
        },
        {
          "code": "ka",
          "lang": "Georgian",
          "roman": "č̣ešmariṭebis marcvali",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "ჭეშმარიტების მარცვალი"
        },
        {
          "code": "ka",
          "lang": "Georgian",
          "roman": "simartlis marcvali",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "სიმართლის მარცვალი"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "Körnchen Wahrheit"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "szemernyi igazság"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "sannleikskorn"
        },
        {
          "code": "ga",
          "lang": "Irish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "iarracht den fhírinne"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "ziarno prawdy"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "zernó ístiny",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "зерно́ и́стины"
        }
      ]
    }
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/En-au-kernel_of_truth.ogg",
      "tags": [
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  "word": "kernel of truth"
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{
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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        "English terms with quotations",
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "There may be a kernel of truth in the story of how George Washington confessed to his father that he chopped down the cherry tree."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1863 October 24, “Latin and Cricket”, in The Albion, A Journal of News, Politics and Literature, volume 41, number 48, New York, page 513",
          "text": "Whether the Duke of Wellington really said of the Eton playing-fields that it was there that the battle Waterloo was won, may fairly be doubted. The story has many elements of the myth about it; but, like other myths, it has a kernel of truth.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "1955, F. Schmidl, \"The problem of scientific validation in psycho-analytic interpretation,\" International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, vol 36 no 2 (Mar/Apr), pp. 105-113.\nThis statement will be unacceptable to many biographers and historians, but there seems to be a definite kernel of truth in it."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003 September 7, “The New Season/Film: Big Fish”, in The New York Times, page AR74",
          "text": "It's about a young man (Billy Crudup) who tries to distill the true biography of his dying father (Albert Finney) by looking for the kernels of truth in the many tall tales he has told.",
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        "A core accuracy at the heart of a claim or narrative which also contains dubious or fictitious elements."
      ],
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          "accuracy",
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          "dubious",
          "dubious"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A core accuracy at the heart of a claim or narrative which also contains dubious or fictitious elements."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
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  "sounds": [
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "kern van waarheid"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "totuuden jyvä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "part de vérité"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "fond de vérité"
    },
    {
      "code": "ka",
      "lang": "Georgian",
      "roman": "č̣ešmariṭebis marcvali",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "ჭეშმარიტების მარცვალი"
    },
    {
      "code": "ka",
      "lang": "Georgian",
      "roman": "simartlis marcvali",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "სიმართლის მარცვალი"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "Körnchen Wahrheit"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "szemernyi igazság"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "sannleikskorn"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "iarracht den fhírinne"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "ziarno prawdy"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "zernó ístiny",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "зерно́ и́стины"
    }
  ],
  "word": "kernel of truth"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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