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[ US /ˈɝnɪst/ ]
[ UK /ˈɜːnəst/ ]
ADJECTIVE
  1. sincerely earnest
    one's dearest wish
    devout wishes for their success
    heartfelt condolences
  2. not distracted by anything unrelated to the goal
  3. characterized by a firm and humorless belief in the validity of your opinions
    a film with a solemn social message
    an entirely sincere and cruel tyrant
    both sides were deeply in earnest, even passionate
NOUN
  1. something of value given by one person to another to bind a contract

How To Use earnest In A Sentence

  • We may earnestly believe that they're wrong - whether they're non-Christians, heretics, apostates, agnostics, atheists, or what have you.
  • My hair was matted and wild -- my limbs soiled with salt ooze; while at sea, I had thrown off those of my garments that encumbered me, and the rain drenched the thin summer-clothing I had retained -- my feet were bare, and the stunted reeds and broken shells made them bleed -- the while, I hurried to and fro, now looking earnestly on some distant rock which, islanded in the sands, bore for a moment a deceptive appearance -- now with flashing eyes reproaching the murderous ocean for its unutterable cruelty. III.9
  • John Malkovich's clever turn as the trainer Lucien Laurin leavens the earnest material. The Short List: A Guide to This Week's Arts and Entertainment
  • Jonathan's soothing assurances did not satisfy David, and he 'sware' in the earnestness of his conviction. Expositions of Holy Scripture Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and First Book of Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, and Second Kings chapters I to VII
  • In life's earnest battle they only prevail, who daily march onward and never say fail. 
  • She speaks earnestly, thoughtfully and funnily about how we are all ‘differently abled ‘in one way or another.’
  • Thus, in the Western philosophical tradition, occasionalists in the proper sense of the term emerge in earnest in the wake of René Descartes (1596 “ 1650) in the form of “Cartesian occasionalists”. Occasionalism
  • “Night and day praying exceedingly,” that is, praying out of measure, with intense earnestness, superabundantly, beyond measure, exceeding abundantly. The Weapon of Prayer
  • But, hey, the show is so earnest and eager to please that such things are almost easy to overlook.
  • But this is a small town as typical as anywhere else in the American heartland: earnest, churchy, amiable, inward-looking, bland, conformist, trusting.
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