Word.ws English Dictionary

ernest

UK/ˈɜː(ɹ)nɪst/

ernest is the obsolete form 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

Proper noun capitalized: Ernest

Ernest

  1. A male given name from the Germanic languages; popular in the 19th century.
    • GWENDOLEN. […] and my ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence.1895, Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest […] , [Act I]
    • "What's his name, your boyfriend?" "Ernest. Ernest Hemingway." The name was received in disparaging silence. Marlene said: "You wouldn't get me going out with a feller called Ernest. My granddad was Ernest."1980, P. D. James, Innocent Blood
  2. A surname.

Origin of ernest

Borrowed in the 18th century from Ernst, a medieval royal name in Germany, from Old High German ernust (“vigor, strife”), only remotely related to modern German ernst or English earnest.

Questions about ernest

What does ernest mean?
Ernest means a male given name from the Germanic languages; popular in the 19th century.
What is ernest the obsolete form of?
Ernest is the obsolete form of earnest.
What part of speech is ernest?
Ernest is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce ernest?
Ernest is pronounced /ˈɜː(ɹ)nɪst/ (UK).

Words near ernest in the dictionary

  1. ernas
  2. erne
  3. erned
  4. Ernei
  5. ernes
  6. ernest
  7. Ernesta
  8. Ernestina
  9. Ernestine
  10. Ernestinovo
  11. Ernesto

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ernest (page history and authors); Ernest (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-earnest.ogg.

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