sincere

See also: Sincere, sinceré, and sincère

English

Etymology

From Middle French sincere, from Latin sincerus (“genuine”), from Proto-Indo-European *sem- + *ḱer- (“grow”), from which also Ceres (“goddess of harvest”) from which English cereal.

Unrelated to sine (“without”) + cera (“wax”) (folk etymology); see Wikipedia page.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɪnˈsɪə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɪnˈsɪɹ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

Adjective

sincere (comparative more sincere or sincerer, superlative most sincere or sincerest)

1. Genuine; meaning what one says or does; heartfelt.

   I believe he is sincere in his offer to help.

   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter III, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book I (The Feast of Pikes), page 19:

     Tumid blustering, with more or less of sincerity, which need not be entirely sincere, yet the sincerer the better, is like to go far.

   • 1967 June, Drake Maynard, If, volume 17, number 6, page 160:

     My sincerest apologies to Brother Ron Smith in the December ish.

   • 2003, “The Outsider”, performed by A Perfect Circle:

     If you choose to pull the trigger, should your drama prove sincere
     Do it somewhere far away from here

2. Meant truly or earnestly.

   She gave it a sincere if misguided effort.

   • 1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 161:

     The message that through sincere teshuvah and resolution, light and gladness can be achieved by all, is most fitting for the opening of the Yom Kippur service.

3. (archaic) clean; pure

Synonyms

• earnest

Antonyms

• insincere

Related terms

• cereal
• Ceres
• crescent
• sincerity
• sincereness

Translations

earnest

• Albanian: i sinqertë (sq)
• Arabic: مُخْلِص (muḵliṣ)
• Armenian: անկեղծ (hy) (ankeġc)
• Azerbaijani: səmimi (az)
• Basque: zintzo (eu)
• Belarusian: шчы́ры (be) (ščýry)
• Bulgarian: и́скрен (bg) (ískren)
• Catalan: sincer (ca)
• Chinese:

  Literary: 誠 (chéng), 亶 (dǎn), 僤 (dàn), 恂 (xún), 悃 (kǔn), 懇 (kěn), 愊 (bì), 愖 (dān), 愫 (sù), 篤 (dǔ), 摯 (zhì)

  Mandarin: 真誠 / 真诚 (zh) (zhēnchéng)

• Czech: upřímný (cs)
• Danish: oprigtig
• Dutch: oprecht (nl)
• Esperanto: sincera (eo)
• Estonian: siiras (et)
• Finnish: vilpitön (fi)
• French: sincère (fr)
• Galician: sincero (gl), franco (gl)
• Georgian: გულწრფელი (gulc̣rpeli)
• German: aufrichtig (de)
• Gothic: 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌺𐌽𐍃 (airkns), 𐌿𐌽𐌷𐌹𐌽𐌳𐌰𐍂𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍃 (unhindarweis)
• Greek: ειλικρινής (el) (eilikrinís)

  Ancient: εἰλικρινής (eilikrinḗs)

• Hindi: ईमानदार (hi) (īmāndār), सच्चा (hi) (saccā)
• Hungarian: őszinte (hu)
• Icelandic: einlægur (is)
• Indonesian: ikhlas (id), tulus hati, bersih hati
• Irish: dílis, cneasta
• Italian: sincero (it), fervido (it), zelante (it), assiduo (it)
• Japanese: 誠実な (ja) (せいじつな, seijitsu na)
• Kazakh: адал (adal), ақкөңіл (aqköñıl), шын (şyn)
• Khiamniungan Naga: tângsàngshī, tângsàngshī
• Khmer: ស្មោះ (km) (smɑh),​ សច្ចំ (km) (saccang)
• Korean: 진실하다 (ko) (jinsilhada)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: دڵ پاک (dill pak)

• Lao: ຈິງໃຈ (ching chai)
• Latin: sincērus
• Latvian: patiess
• Lithuanian: nuoširdus
• Macedonian: искрен (iskren)
• Malay: ikhlas
• Maori: tinihangakore, motuhenga, ngākau pono
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norman: sîncéthe
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: oppriktig

• Persian: صادق (fa) (sâdeq), صمیمی (fa) (samimi)
• Polish: szczery (pl)
• Portuguese: sincero (pt)
• Romanian: sincer (ro)
• Russian: и́скренний (ru) (ískrennij)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: и̏скрен

  Roman: ȉskren (sh)

• Slovak: úprimný
• Slovene: iskren (sl)
• Spanish: sincero (es)
• Swedish: uppriktig (sv)
• Tajik: содиқ (sodiq), самимӣ (tg) (samimi)
• Thai: จริงใจ (th) (jing-jai)
• Turkish: samimi (tr), içten (tr), yürekten (tr), kalpten (tr)
• Ukrainian: щи́рий (ščýryj)
• Uyghur: سەمىمىي (semimiy)
• Uzbek: samimiy (uz)
• Vietnamese: thành thật (vi), thật thà (vi), ngay thật (vi), chân thành (vi), thành khẩn (vi)
• Volapük: ladöfik (vo)
• Welsh: diffuant (cy)

Further reading

• “sincere”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “sincere”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “sincere”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• sincere in Britannica Dictionary
• sincere in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary
• sincere in Ozdic collocation dictionary
• sincere in WordReference English Collocations

Anagrams

• cereins, ceresin, cerines, renices

Esperanto

Etymology

sincera +‎ -e

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sinˈt͡sere/
• Rhymes: -ere
• Hyphenation: sin‧ce‧re

Adverb

sincere

1. sincerely

Antonyms

• malsincere (“insincerely”)

Italian

Adjective

sincere f pl

1. feminine plural of sincero

Anagrams

• censire, crisene, recensì, recinse, scernei, secerni

Latin

Etymology 1

Adverb

sincērē (not comparable)

1. uprightly, honestly, frankly, sincerely
   • 1st century, Catullus, Poem 109

     Di magni, facite ut vere promittere possit // atque id sincere dicat ex animo

Etymology 2

Adjective

sincēre

1. vocative masculine singular of sincērus

References

• “sincere”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sincere”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Middle French

Etymology

First attested in 1441, borrowed from Latin sincērus.

Adjective

sincere m or f (plural sinceres)

1. sincere (genuinely meaning what one says or does)

Descendants

• French: sincère
• → English: sincere

Spanish

Verb

sincere

1. inflection of sincerar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative