A half-truth

A half-truth is a misleading statement that takes in some element of truth. The statement might be partially true, the statement may be completely true but only part of the whole truth, or it may employ some deceptive element, such as double meaning or improper punctuation, particularly if the aim is to evade, deceive, blame or misrepresent the truth. 

The idea and or result of a half-truth is to make something that is actually only a belief appear to be knowledge, or a truthful statement to represent the whole truth, or perhaps lead to a false conclusion. As per the justified true belief theory of knowledge, in order to know that a given proposition is true, one must not only believe in the applicable true proposition, but one must also have a good reason for doing so. 

A half- truth betrays the recipient by presenting something convincing and using those aspects of the statement that can be shown to be true as good reason to consider the statement is true in its entirety, or that the statement represents the whole truth. A person misled by a half-truth believes the proposition to be knowledge and acts consequently.