Word.ws English Dictionary

in fairness

in fairness prepositional phrase: as a counterpoint; for the sake of balance; to lessen the harm.

Prepositional phrase

  1. As a counterpoint; for the sake of balance; to lessen the harm.
    • Chelsea were given a debatable penalty for Eden Hazard to make it 2-1 in the first period of extra-time and it was another night of repeat offending from Costa. Mourinho, in fairness, focused on his team’s shortcomings rather than any misplaced sense of injustice and even called for Uefa to let...2015 March 12, Daniel Taylor, “Chelsea out of Champions League after Thiago Silva sends 10-man PSG through on away goals”, in The Guardian (London)
    • The chap opposite seems to be trying to pull a fast one, and having seen the guard is trying to buy a ticket online... but doesn't succeed. The guard helpfully sells him one, but not quite at the price of one purchased in advance. In fairness he doesn't kick off, nor does the guard treat him like...2024 April 17, “Rural railways: do they deliver?”, in RAIL, number 1007, page 57
    Synonyms:
    to be fair

Examples of in fairness in a sentence

  • Mourinho, in fairness, focused on his team’s shortcomings rather than any misplaced sense of injustice and even called for Uefa to let Ibrahimovic off.2015 March 12, Daniel Taylor, “Chelsea out of Champions League after Thiago Silva sends 10-man PSG through on away goals”, in The Guardian...
  • In fairness he doesn't kick off, nor does the guard treat him like some common criminal.2024 April 17, “Rural railways: do they deliver?”, in RAIL, number 1007, page 57:

Synonyms of in fairness

Forms of in fairness

alternative formin all fairness
alternative Philippines USinfairness

Questions about in fairness

What does in fairness mean?
In fairness means as a counterpoint; for the sake of balance; to lessen the harm.
How do you use in fairness in a sentence?
Mourinho, in fairness, focused on his team’s shortcomings rather than any misplaced sense of injustice and even called for Uefa to let Ibrahimovic off.
What part of speech is in fairness?
In fairness is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in fairness in the dictionary

  1. in extenso
  2. in extenuation of
  3. in extremis
  4. in face of
  5. in fact
  6. in fairness
  7. in faith
  8. in fashion
  9. in favor
  10. in favor of
  11. in favor with

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in fairness (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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Cite this entry: “in fairness.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_fairness. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.