I recently observed a discussion where there was a fundamental disagreement about how most people use the word "truth," so I'm curious to gather some anecdotal data. **Person A** claimed that when most people use the words "true" or "truth," they are referring to absolute truth, which is universal and unchangeable, For example, when someone says "It is true that the Earth is round." they are referring to the fact that there definitely exists an absolute truth, and although they realize they may be wrong about it, they believe they have identified it in this area. **Person B** claimed that when most people use the words "true" or "truth," they are never referring to absolute truth, but rather to body of academic knowledge on a topic. In other words, when someone says "The truth is that Climate Change is happening." they aren't making a claim about reality, but the consensus of scientific opinion. Since empirical data is utterly incapable of revealing absolute truth, the collective wisdom of the scientific community is the best we can do to identify anything that we could reasonably call "truth." It was an interesting discussion and both sides claimed the support of the dictionary, so although this feels like a stupid question that a dictionary should be able to answer, I'm curious what this community thinks. What do you mean when you use the words "true" or "truth?"