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earnest

Pronunciation: /ˈɝ.nɪst/

The English word “earnest” has 10 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Gravity; serious purpose; earnestness.
  2. Seriousness; reality; actuality (as opposed to joking or pretence)
  3. A sum of money paid in advance as a deposit; hence, a pledge, a guarantee, an indication of something to come.

verb

  1. To be serious with; use in earnest.

adjective

  1. Serious, sincere, ingenuous.
  2. Focused in the pursuit of an objective; honestly eager to obtain or do.
  3. Intent; focused; showing a lot of concentration.
  4. Possessing or characterised by seriousness.
  5. Strenuous; diligent.
  6. Serious; weighty; of a serious, weighty, or important nature; important.

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,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.