earnest
Plural: earnests
Noun
- A portion of a payment or pledge, often as a down payment.
- something of value given by one person to another to bind a contract
- Gravity; serious purpose; earnestness.
- Seriousness; reality; actuality (as opposed to joking or pretence)
- A sum of money paid in advance as a deposit; hence, a pledge, a guarantee, an indication of something to come.
Adjective Satellite
- characterized by a firm and humorless belief in the validity of your opinions
- "both sides were deeply in earnest, even passionate"
- earnest
- not distracted by anything unrelated to the goal
Verb
- To be serious with; use in earnest.
- second-person singular simple present indicative of earn
Adj
- Serious, sincere, ingenuous.
- Focused in the pursuit of an objective; honestly eager to obtain or do.
- Intent; focused; showing a lot of concentration.
- Possessing or characterised by seriousness.
- Strenuous; diligent.
- Serious; weighty; of a serious, weighty, or important nature; important.
Examples
- an earnest disposition
- earnest attention
- earnest efforts
- earnest prayers
- His play of EARNEST was a small but steady contribution to his overall score.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English ernest, eornest, from Old English eornest, eornost, eornust (“earnestness, zeal, seriousness, battle”), from Proto-Germanic *ernustuz (“earnest, strength, solidity, struggle, fight”), a derivative of Proto-Germanic *arniz (“efficient, capable, diligent, sure”), from Proto-Indo-European *er- (“to cause to move, arouse, increase”).
Cognate with West Frisian earnst (“earnest, seriousness”), Dutch ernst (“seriousness, gravity, earnest”), German Ernst (“seriousness, earnestness, zeal, vigour”), Icelandic ern (“brisk, vigorous”), Gothic 𐌰𐍂𐌽𐌹𐌱𐌰 (arniba, “secure, certain, sure”).
The adjective is from Middle English eornest, from Old English eornoste (“earnest, zealous, serious”), from the noun. Cognate with North Frisian ernste (“earnest”), Middle Low German ernest, ernst (“serious, earnest”), German ernst (“serious, earnest”).
Synonyms
businesslike, dear, devout, heartfelt, sincere, solemn, actual, assiduous, austere, authentic, big, bona fide, centered, central, concentrated, consequential, critical, crucial, demure, diligent, earnest, epochful, essential, extraordinary, fatefraught, fateful, fatesome, focused, genuine, grave, grievous, hard-working, heavy, high on the totem pole, historic, industrious, innegligible, inspissated, intensive, intent, key, lack-laughter, legit, legitimate, life-or-death, lubish, meaningful, necessary, non-fake, notable, noted, noticeable, observable, outstanding, painstaking, paramount, pertinent, pukka, real, relevant, remarkable, sad, sage, salient, saturnine, sedate, sedulous, serious, significant, sober, solemncholy, somber, sombre, staid, sterling, stern, sweer, telic, thoughtful, true, unadulterated, uncounterfeited, undissembled, unfaked, unfeigned, unignorable, valuable, veritable, vital, weightsome, weighty, worksome
Scrabble Score: 7
earnest: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordearnest: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
earnest: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary