bona fides

/ˈboʊnəfaɪdz/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

dated/ˌboʊnə ˈfaɪdiz/

bona fides noun: sincerity, good faith.

Noun

bona fides (uncountable)

Sincerity, good faith.
Credentials that authenticate a person's good standing or reputation.
- […] but my note had evidently stung him, and I had a brusque message in which he said that if I wished him to believe in my “bona-fides” (whatever he may have meant by that), I would return the money which I had had during the time that I was with him at Bradfield.1895, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The Stark Munro Letters: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC
- He sat down at a table and wrote to my dictation. The gist of it was that if a man called Twisdon (I thought I had better stick to that name) turned up before June 15th he was to entreat him kindly. He said Twisdon would prove his bona fides by passing the word “Black Stone” and whistling “Annie...1915 August–September, John Buchan, chapter IV, in The Thirty-Nine Steps, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published October 1915, →OCLC

நேரிய எண்ணம் நல்லெண்ணம், நேர்மையான எண்ணம், கபடற்ற உள்நோக்கம்

He said Twisdon would prove his bona fides by passing the word “Black Stone” and whistling “Annie Laurie”.1915 August–September, John Buchan, chapter IV, in The Thirty-Nine Steps, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published October...
“I have been advised that this nameless agent is in a position to establish his bona fides at any time, as he bears a number of these cards.1919, Sax Rohmer, chapter XXIV, in Dope:
There followed standard questions to establish Carter’s bona fides, his length of experience and seniority.2014, Ian McEwan, The Children Act, Penguin Random House (2018), page 65:

From Latin bona (nominative feminine singular of bonus (“good”)) + fidēs (“faith”).

What does bona fides mean?: Bona fides means sincerity, good faith.
What is bona fides in Tamil?: Bona fides in Tamil is நேரிய எண்ணம் நல்லெண்ணம், நேர்மையான எண்ணம், கபடற்ற உள்நோக்கம். See Bona fides meaning in Tamil.
How do you use bona fides in a sentence?: He said Twisdon would prove his bona fides by passing the word “Black Stone” and whistling “Annie Laurie”.
What part of speech is bona fides?: Bona fides is a noun.
How do you pronounce bona fides?: Bona fides is pronounced /ˈboʊnəfaɪdz/.

Adapted from Wiktionary: bona fides (page history and authors); bona fides (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “bona fides.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bona_fides. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.