to learn the truth
31
3.0
- phrasal verb
- I went to the surface and I learned the truth.
- finally learn the truth
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Watch on YouTubeAnd then I had to, I had to learn the truth that would neutralize those lies.
- And then I had to, I had to learn the truth that would neutralize those lies.
- You, if you've already learned the truth about yourself, don't ignore that truth in the present.
- The man I disagree with politically, but that's OK because I'm here to learn the truth.
- Over the course of her last summer on the island, a summer of storms, of love, of salt, Georgina will learn the truth about magic in all its many forms.
Examples
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Will we ever learn the truth about what happened to her?
Fiction book (1997) -
We must work untiringly so that our children are obliged to learn the truth, because it is only through knowledge that we can safely protect them.
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The moment when I would learn the truth.
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How far will you go to learn the truth?
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We're gonna turn this thing inside out until we learn the truth, okay?
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By the time I learned the truth, I was too scared.
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We must learn the truth.
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We knew that if we could find it and make contact, we could confirm our theory and learn the truth about what really happened to those missing boys.
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On Monday morning, Mr. Pomfret let her know, in a roundabout way, that he had learned the truth.
Fiction book (1995) -
You came here to learn the truth about your past.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To have information about something
∞
2.1
To learn something you did not know, often by searching or asking
∞
1.0
To find out about something for the first time, often by chance
Antonyms
How Clear
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase's meaning ('to discover what is actually true') is directly and compositionally derived from 'learn' (to find out) + 'truth' (what is real); the definite article 'the' does not alter that compositional reading. This is a common, literal construction found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The phrase learn the truth comes from the image of pulling back a curtain to see what is really there, with learn meaning to find out and truth meaning what is real. So it means 'to discover what is actually true'.