truism
/tɹuːizəm/noun
truism is spelled T-R-U-I-S-M: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 58,714th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, truism means “A self-evident or obvious truth” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of truism is truisms.
How many letters and syllables are in truism?
| Letters | 6: T-R-U-I-S-M |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 58,714th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is truism?
Truism appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 58,714th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce truism?
- /tɹuːizəm/
Truism has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-truism.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of truism
- truisms plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does truism mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A self-evident or obvious truth.
- 2
A banality or cliché.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Truism in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | lapalissade, truisme |
| German | Binsenwahrheit, Binsenweisheit, Gemeinplatz, Truismus, Binse, Allgemeinplatz |
| Portuguese | truísmo |
| Spanish | perogrullada, verdad de Perogrullo, grullada, truismo , lugar común, tópico |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does truism come from?
From true + -ism.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).