Skip to main content
PlainSpell

earnest

/ˈɝ.nɪst/noun, verb, adjective

earnest is spelled E-A-R-N-E-S-T: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Earnest, the name). As a noun, earnest means “Gravity; serious purpose; earnestness” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of earnest is earnests.

How many letters and syllables are in earnest?

Letters7: E-A-R-N-E-S-T
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.6 times per million words; the 11,870th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is earnest?

Earnest appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Earnest, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce earnest?

  • US /ˈɝ.nɪst/
  • UK /ˈɜː.nɪst/

Earnest has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-earnest.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with earnest?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as earnest (/ɜɹnɪst/).

Spelled with the same letters in another order: eastern, nearest.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of earnest

  • earnests present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • earnesting participle, present
  • earnested participle, past
  • earnester comparative
  • more earnest comparative
  • earnestest superlative
  • most earnest superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does earnest mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Gravity; serious purpose; earnestness.

  2. 2

    Seriousness; reality; actuality (as opposed to joking or pretence)

  3. 3

    A sum of money paid in advance as a deposit; hence, a pledge, a guarantee, an indication of something to come.

verb

  1. 1

    To be serious with; use in earnest.

adjective

  1. 1

    Serious, sincere, ingenuous.

  2. 2

    Focused in the pursuit of an objective; honestly eager to obtain or do.

    earnest prayers

  3. 3

    Intent; focused; showing a lot of concentration.

    earnest attention

  4. 4

    Possessing or characterised by seriousness.

    an earnest disposition

  5. 5

    Strenuous; diligent.

    earnest efforts

  6. 6

    Serious; weighty; of a serious, weighty, or important nature; important.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Earnest in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsérieux, gravité (gravity; serious purpose; earnestness), ardent (ardent), grave (important, serious)
GermanErnst, Ernsthaftigkeit (gravity; serious purpose; earnestness), leidenschaftlich, sehnsüchtig (ardent), ernst (important, serious), intensiv (intent)
Portuguesesério (ardent), sincero (important, serious), seriedade (seriousness; reality; actuality (as opposed to…)
Spanishencarecido (ardent), señal, arras (pledge)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does earnest come from?

From Middle English ernest, eornest, from Old English eornest, eornost, eornust (“earnestness, zeal, seriousness, battle”), from Proto-Germanic *ernustuz (“earnest, strength, solidity, struggle, fight”), a derivative of Proto-Germanic *arniz (“efficient, capable, diligent, sure”), from Proto-Indo-European *er- (“to cause to move, arouse, increase”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after earnest