Word.ws English Dictionary

earnests

earnests is the plural of earnest.

Meaning of earnest

Noun (1)

earnest (uncountable)

  1. Gravity; serious purpose; earnestness.
    • Take heed that this jest do not one day turn to earnest.a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London...
  2. Seriousness; reality; actuality (as opposed to joking or pretence)

Noun (2)

earnest (plural earnests)

  1. A sum of money paid in advance as a deposit; hence, a pledge, a guarantee, an indication of something to come.
    • Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Corinthians 5:5

See all 11 meanings of earnest

Questions about earnests

What is earnests the plural of?
Earnests is the plural of earnest.

Words near earnests in the dictionary

  1. earnestlier
  2. earnestly
  3. earnestness
  4. earnestnesse
  5. earnestnesses
  6. earnests
  7. earnesty
  8. earneth
  9. Earney
  10. Earneys
  11. earnful

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: earnests (page history and authors); earnest (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.

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