white lie

noun

: a lie about a small or unimportant matter that someone tells to avoid hurting another person
He told a (little) white lie as his excuse for missing the party.

Examples of white lie in a Sentence

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The two eventually form an intergenerational friendship that’s genuine, even if its foundation is based on a white lie, and you brace for the inevitable moment — not an if, but a when — of Eleanor getting busted. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 24 Sep. 2025 His career sprouted from a little white lie and a big black eye. Jon Paul Hoornstra, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Sep. 2025 Some secrets should be left secret, Morticia believes, but little white lie secrets should be exposed. Carly Thomas, HollywoodReporter, 5 Sep. 2025 While being truthful is an important value, telling a white lie can be acceptable. Juli Fraga, CNBC, 29 July 2025 Isn’t a white lie better than telling your boss the truth about their new haircut? Dmitry Malin, Forbes.com, 15 July 2025 That’s where Christine Burke’s little white lie came in especially handy. ​wendy Wisner, Parents, 14 Apr. 2025 Exhausted and distraught at his mother’s distress, one day Jan tells her a white lie: His father is on a trip to Paris, where his parents spent their honeymoon in 1970. John Hopewell, Variety, 30 Dec. 2024 Every slit throat and breathless headline whispers the same thing into a thousand different ears: Everything you were told about the world as a kid was a little white lie. David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 8 July 2024

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“White lie.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/white%20lie. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.

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