earnestness
Americannoun
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seriousness and zeal in intention, purpose, or effort.
Socrates was a man of great moral earnestness, and exemplified in his own life some of the noblest virtues.
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depth and sincerity of feeling.
Speak with conviction and earnestness, and the people watching and listening will believe you.
Etymology
Origin of earnestness
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Like every other detail here, that implicit complaint is dusty and ossified, and Mr. Williamson’s formerly wised-up dialogue has been supplanted by a grinding earnestness, with everyone constantly asking about one another’s feelings.
The earnestness transferred into the character and lifted it.
From Los Angeles Times
The group’s aesthetic blends ’90s nostalgia and modern editing tricks, all delivered with a curious blend of camp and earnestness.
Having lost his right arm, he is told, in all earnestness, “There are people who, funnily enough, would give their right arm to be able to do what you do.”
The emotional earnestness that would often come through in Reiner’s work first emerged here, making what could have been a run-of-the-mill exercise into something more.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
