earnestness
ear·nest·ness/ˈɝnɪstnəs/noun
earnestness is spelled E-A-R-N-E-S-T-N-E-S-S: 11 letters and 3 syllables (ear·nest·ness). It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 60,074th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, earnestness means “The quality of being earnest; sincerity; seriousness” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of earnestness is earnestnesses.
How many letters and syllables are in earnestness?
| Letters | 11: E-A-R-N-E-S-T-N-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: ear·nest·ness |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 60,074th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is earnestness?
Earnestness appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 60,074th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce earnestness?
- US /ˈɝnɪstnəs/
- UK /ˈɜːnɪstnəs/
Earnestness has 3 syllables, split ear·nest·ness in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-earnestness.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of earnestness
- earnestnesses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does earnestness mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The quality of being earnest; sincerity; seriousness.
She spoke with great earnestness about the issue.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does earnestness come from?
From earnest + -ness.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).