WHITE lie vs. BLACK lie

[Tomas]

Test No. incompl/inter-14 "Popular Idioms (1)", question 5

It's all right to tell a ......... lie.

(a) red
(b) white
(c) blue
(d) black

Test No. incompl/inter-14 "Popular Idioms (1)", answer 5

It's all right to tell a white lie.

Correct answer: (b) white

Your answer was: incorrect
It's all right to tell a black lie.
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why do you say WHITE lie and not BLACK lie?

Tomas

[Torsten]

Hi Tomas,

Thank you for your question. The expression a white lie is an idiom - it means an unimportant lie (especially if an unimportant lie (especially one told to be tactful or polite).

There probably idioms with colours in your language and you can try to see what happens if you change a colour in that expressions...
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Ahmadov]

Interestingly enough, if you translate "white lie" into Azeri it would mean "a blatant lie".
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