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EARNESTNESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The trait of being serious
Example:
a lack of solemnity is not necessarily a lack of seriousness
Synonyms:
earnestness; serious-mindedness; seriousness; sincerity
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("earnestness" is a kind of...):
trait (a distinguishing feature of your personal nature)
Attribute:
serious (concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities)
frivolous (not serious in content or attitude or behavior)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "earnestness"):
commitment; committedness (the trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose)
graveness; gravity; soberness; sobriety; somberness; sombreness (a manner that is serious and solemn)
sedateness; solemness; solemnity; staidness (a trait of dignified seriousness)
Derivation:
earnest (not distracted by anything unrelated to the goal)
earnest (characterized by a firm and humorless belief in the validity of your opinions)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An earnest and sincere feeling
Synonyms:
earnestness; seriousness; sincerity
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("earnestness" is a kind of...):
gravity; solemnity (a solemn and dignified feeling)
Derivation:
earnest (sincerely earnest)
Context examples:
Remember also the curious earnestness with which she assured us that it was best for her husband that she should know all.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“What shall I do, then?” she asked, detecting the anxious glance I had shot at the object of our conversation, and impressed, I flatter myself, with the earnestness of my manner.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Elinor's thanks followed this speech with grateful earnestness; attended too with the assurance of her expecting material advantage to Marianne, from the communication of what had passed.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
He stopped in his earnestness to look the question, and the expression of his eyes overpowered her.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
“Certainly,” said Fanny, with gentle earnestness.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
He gave her to understand that he had looked at her with some earnestness.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Nevertheless, while she disapproved of them, the strength of their utterance, and the flashing of eyes and earnestness of face that accompanied them, always thrilled her and drew her toward him.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
I shut up, as well as I could, in my own heart the anxiety that preyed there and entered with seeming earnestness into the plans of my father, although they might only serve as the decorations of my tragedy.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
One by one several of the passengers offered me gifts, which they pressed upon me with an earnestness which would take no denial; these were certainly of an odd and varied kind, but each was given in simple good faith, with a kindly word, and a blessing, and that strange mixture of fear-meaning movements which I had seen outside the hotel at Bistritz—the sign of the cross and the guard against the evil eye.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The kindness, the earnestness of Eleanor's manner in pressing her to stay, and Henry's gratified look on being told that her stay was determined, were such sweet proofs of her importance with them, as left her only just so much solicitude as the human mind can never do comfortably without.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
