Word.ws English Dictionary

in earnest

in earnest adjective: sincere; determined; truthful.

Adjective

in earnest

  1. Sincere; determined; truthful.
    • "I wasn't in earnest. I only brought it in joke."1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 29.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC
    • She replied, "When did I ever tell you a lie ? I am in earnest."1845, Caroline Kirkland, Western Clearings, Wiley and Putnam, page 104

Adverb

in earnest (comparative more in earnest, superlative most in earnest)

  1. With considerable commitment, determination, or effect; significantly.
    • It's snowing in earnest right now.
    • The gentlemen wear swords, and may easily have pistols in their pockets—most likely have, indeed. If they fire at each other without effect, then they’ll draw, and go to work in earnest.1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 11, in Barnaby Rudge
  2. Having a sincere intent. (of a person)
    • He was talking in earnest, even though his speech carried an ironic tone.
    • "I haven't got it, yet," he told her, while she was behind the screen, above which, as she dressed, there now and then were flutters of swung garments. "But I'll find someone. If you're really in earnest about this-you are, aren't you?"1913, Edward Marshall, The Master of the House, G.W. Dillingham Company, page 19

in earnest meaning in Malayalam

in earnest in Malayalam

sincere, serious, whole-hearted
കാര്യമായി, ഗൗരവമായി, ആത്മാർത്ഥമായി, അകൃത്രിമമായി, അകെെതവമായി, പൂർണ്ണമനസ്സോടെ
determinedly, zealously, purposefully
ആത്മർത്ഥതയോടെ, വ്യഗ്രതയോടെ, സോദ്ദേശ്യമായി, അചഞ്ചലമായ നിശ്ചയദാർഢ്യത്തോടുകൂടി, അത്യാസക്തമായി, സലക്ഷ്യം

Examples of in earnest in a sentence

  • Samuel was stern, serious and deeply in earnest.1916, Elbert Hubbard, “Samuel Adams”, in Little Journeys Vol. 3: American Statesmen:
  • But I see that if I were to live in a wilderness I should again be tempted to become a fisher and hunter in earnest.1854, Henry David Thoreau, chapter 11, in Walden:
  • He spoke in earnest of the importance of achieving academic excellence as well as winning football games.1995 December 27, Guerry Clegg, “Mason era ends quickly at Georgia”, in Gainesville Sun, retrieved 20 Aug 2010, page 2C:
  • The Northern Alliance attacked in earnest on Friday night, and the Afghan Taliban soldiers immediately switched sides, while their commanders jumped into pickup trucks and sped south.2001 November 14, Alex Perry, “Eyewitness: The Taliban Undone”, in Time:

Forms of in earnest

comparativemore in earnest
superlativemost in earnest

Origin of in earnest

Dates back at least to Old English on eornost, of the same meaning of the adverbial sense below.

Questions about in earnest

What does in earnest mean?
In earnest means sincere; determined; truthful.
What is in earnest in Malayalam?
In earnest in Malayalam is കാര്യമായി, ഗൗരവമായി, ആത്മാർത്ഥമായി. See In earnest meaning in Malayalam.
How do you use in earnest in a sentence?
Samuel was stern, serious and deeply in earnest.
What part of speech is in earnest?
In earnest can be an adjective or an adverb.

Words near in earnest in the dictionary

  1. in dubio pro reo
  2. in due course
  3. in due time
  4. in duplicate
  5. in dutch
  6. in earnest
  7. in effect
  8. in effigy
  9. in embryo
  10. in equal measure
  11. in error

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in earnest (page history and authors); in earnest (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset 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-in earnest.ogg.

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