"true colours" meaning in English

See true colours in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Head templates: {{en-noun|p}} true colours pl (plural only), {{tlb|en|British}} (British)
  1. The real character, belief or intent of a person or group who present a dishonest picture of their nature to the world. Tags: British, plural, plural-only Synonyms: true stripes, true colors Related terms: show one's true colors
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The organisation was officially concerned with economic development, but after the memo was leaked people began to see them in their true colours.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1986, Billy Steinberg, Tom Kelly (lyrics and music), “True Colors”, performed by Cyndi Lauper:",
          "text": "But I see your true colors / Shining through / I see your true colors / And that's why I love you / So don't be afraid to let them show",
          "type": "quote"
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        "The real character, belief or intent of a person or group who present a dishonest picture of their nature to the world."
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          "real",
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          "character",
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        ],
        [
          "belief",
          "belief"
        ],
        [
          "intent",
          "intent"
        ],
        [
          "dishonest",
          "dishonest"
        ],
        [
          "picture",
          "picture"
        ],
        [
          "nature",
          "nature"
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        {
          "word": "show one's true colors"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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      "word": "show one's true colors"
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          "real",
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        [
          "character",
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          "belief",
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        ],
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          "picture",
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "true stripes"
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  "word": "true colours"
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). 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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