Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

show one's true stripes

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.66 in modern English

Syllables: show one's true stripes
IPA

27

Scrabble Score

19

Letters

1

Syllables

11

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To reveal one's real beliefs, sentiments, or character, especially through one's behavior.

Example Sentences

"Fidel Castro showed his true stripes again—as if they weren't indelible enough already—by letting his MiGs shoot down two of three unarmed Cuban-exile planes off Havana's coast on Saturday."
"“Now they're showing their true stripes,” Iimmy Fioretos said. “The Turks wanted to invade all along. That malarkey about ‘protecting the Constitution’ was just a pretext.”"
""My fear is that Bill Ford is showing his true stripes as just another short-sighted auto executive with no interest in the environment.""

Inflected Forms

shows one's true stripes (present, singular) showing one's true stripes (participle, present) showed one's true stripes (past) shown one's true stripes (participle, past) showed one's true stripes (US, also)

Synonyms

show one's true colors

Questions

What does show one's true stripes mean?: To reveal one's real beliefs, sentiments, or character, especially through one's behavior.

How to pronounce show one's true stripes

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “show one's true stripes”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “show one's true stripes”.
Repeat and practice — Say “show one's true stripes” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.