honest
Syllables: hon·estUK/ˈɒn.ɪst//ˈɑ.nɪst/
honest adjective: scrupulous with regard to telling the truth; not given to swindling, lying, or fraud; upright.
Adjective
honest (comparative more honest or (nonstandard) honester, superlative most honest or (nonstandard) honestest)
- Scrupulous with regard to telling the truth; not given to swindling, lying, or fraud; upright.
- brutally honest
- We’re the most honest people you will ever come across.
- True, especially as far as is known by the person making the statement; fair; unbiased.
- an honest account of events
- honest reporting
- Synonyms:
- truthful
- In good faith; without malice.
- an honest mistake
- Accurate.
- an honest scale
- Authentic; full.
- an honest day's work
- Earned or acquired in a fair manner.
- an honest dollar
- Open; frank.
- an honest countenance
- Decent; honourable; suitable; becoming.
- Behold what honest clothes you send forth to bleaching!c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- […] Vpon the verge of the Riuer there are fiue houſes, wherein liue the honeſter ſort of people, as Farmers in England, and they keepe continuall centinell for the townes ſecuritie.1624, William Simons, “The Gouernment Returned againe to Sir Thomas Gates, 1611”, in Iohn [i.e., John] Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: […], London: […]...
- Chaste; faithful; virtuous.
- Wives may be merry, and yet honest too.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
Verb
honest (third-person singular simple present honests, present participle honesting, simple past and past participle honested)
- To adorn or grace; to honour; to make becoming, appropriate, or honourable.
- You have very much honested my lodging with your presence.1609 December (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby...
Adverb
honest (comparative more honest, superlative most honest)
- Honestly; really.
- It wasn’t my fault, honest.
honest meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
honest in Hindi
- scrupulous with regard to telling the truth
- ईमानदार īmāndār, सच्चा saccā
honest in Tamil
- scrupulous with regard to telling the truth
- நேர்மையான nērmaiyāṉa
honest in Marathi
- scrupulous with regard to telling the truth
- प्रामाणिक prāmāṇik
- of a statement: true, fair, unbiased
- प्रामाणिक prāmāṇik
honest in Urdu
- honest
- ایماندار īmāndār, ستیہ satya, سرل saral
More languagesFewer languages
- honest in Bengali
- সৎ śot, সিধা śidha, নির্মল nirmol
- honest in Telugu
- సీదా sīdā
- honest in Malayalam
- സത്യസന്ധമായ satyasandhamāya, സത്യസന്ധൻ satyasandhaṉ
- honest in Kannada
- ಪ್ರಾಮಾಣಿಕ, ನಿಷ್ಕಪಟ, ನ್ಯಾಯಪರವಾದ, ಋಜುಮಾರ್ಗದ
- honest in Punjabi
- ਇਮਾਨਦਾਰ
- honest in Gujarati
- પ્રમાણિક, પ્રામાણિક
- honest in Odia
- ଭଲ bhala
- honest in Sanskrit
- ऋजु ṛju
- honest in Nepali
- इमानदार
- honest in Tagalog
- matapat
- honest in Arabic
- نَزِيه nazīh, صَادِق ṣādiq
- honest in Indonesian
- jujur
- honest in Persian
- صادق sâdeq, امین amin
- honest in Thai
- ซื่อสัตย์ sʉ̂ʉ-sàt
- honest in Vietnamese
- thành thật
Examples of honest in a sentence
- He went all honest on me, making me listen to his confession.
- They were just a bunch of ne'er-do-wells who went around making trouble for honest men.
- You made your best honest effort; if they judge you harshly, that’s their problem, not yours.
Synonyms of honest
12 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of honest
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more honest |
| superlative | most honest |
| comparative (nonstandard) | honester |
| superlative (nonstandard) | honestest |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | honests |
| present participle | honesting |
| past participle | honested |
| past | honested |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more honest |
| superlative | most honest |
Origin of honest
From Middle English honest, honeste (“honourable, appropriate, excellent”), from Old French honeste, from Latin honestus, from honor. For the verb, see Latin honestāre (“to clothe or adorn with honour”), and compare French honester. Displaced native Old English sōþfæst (literally “truth-firm”).
Words formed from honest
- God honest truth
- God's honest truth
- honest as the day
- honest broker
- honest comment
- honest Indian
- honest injun
- honest John
- honestly
- honest mistake
- honestness
- honest-to-God
- honest to God
- honest to gods
- honest-to-gods
- honest-to-goodness
- honest to goodness
- honest-to-Hannah
- honest to Pete
- honesty
- if I'm honest
- in my honest opinion
- keep someone honest
- locks only keep honest people honest
- make an honest woman
- overhonest
- to be honest
- Tukey's honest significance test
- turn an honest penny
- underhonest
- unhonest
Phrases with honest
- Honest Abe
- Honest Abes
- honest Johns
- honest injuns
- honest brokers
- honest mistakes
- kept someone honest
- keeps someone honest
- made an honest woman
- makes an honest woman
- turns an honest penny
- keeping someone honest
3 more phrasesFewer phrases
Questions about honest
- What does honest mean?
- Honest means scrupulous with regard to telling the truth; not given to swindling, lying, or fraud; upright.
- What is honest in Hindi?
- Honest in Hindi is ईमानदार (īmāndār), सच्चा (saccā). See Honest meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is honest?
- Honest can be an adjective, a verb or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce honest?
- Honest is pronounced /ˈɒn.ɪst/ (UK).
Words near honest in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: honest (page history and authors); ایماندار (Urdu) (page history and authors); নির্মল (Bengali) (page history and authors); సీదా (Telugu) (page history and authors); honest (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); honest (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); honest (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଭଲ (Odia) (page history and authors); honest (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-honest.ogg.
Cite this entry: “honest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/honest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.