white lie

English

Noun

Wikipedia white lie (plural white lies)

1. (idiomatic) A deliberate, untrue statement which does no harm or is intended to produce a favorable result.
   • 2008, Jacqueline Stenson, "The Whole Truth: When is it okay to lie to your kids?," Newsweek, 15 Jul.,

     An occasional little white lie such as Weston's probably won't cause any lasting damage. And at times, telling the truth—particularly the whole truth to a child who's not at an age to handle it—may do more harm than good, they say.

Translations

untrue, good-willed statement

Catalan: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: 善意的謊話, 善意的谎话 (shànyì de huǎnghuà) Dutch: leugen om bestwil f. Finnish: valkoinen valhe (fi) French: mensonge officieux (fr) m. German: soziale Lüge f., Notlüge (de) f. Hungarian: kegyes hazugság (hu)

Italian: bugia bianca (it) f. Japanese: 悪意にない嘘 (ja) (あくいのないうそ, akui-no nai uso), 罪のない嘘  (ja) (つみのないうそ, tsumi-no nai uso) Latin: pia fraus (la) Portuguese: mentira branca (pt) f. Russian: невинная ложь (ru) (nevínnaja lož’) f. Spanish: mentirilla (es), mentirijilla (es) Turkish: beyaz yalan (tr)