Standard Lemma guide

earnestly

adv · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American: /ˈɝnɪstli/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈɜːnɪstli/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: ER1 N AH0 S T L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adv

Meaning 1

In an earnest manner; being very sincere; putting forth genuine effort.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adverb

Meaning 2

in a serious manner

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • talking earnestly with his son
  • she started studying snakes in earnest
  • a play dealing seriously with the question of divorce

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: seriously, in earnest

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English ernestly, from Old English eornostlīċe (“earnestly, strictly”), equivalent to earnest + -ly.

Across languages

Translations

9 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Finnish: hartaasti — in an earnest manner
  • Finnish: vakavasti — in an earnest manner
  • French: sérieusement — in an earnest manner
  • Galician: seriamente — in an earnest manner
  • German: ernsthaft — in an earnest manner
  • Latin: certātim — in an earnest manner
  • Romanian: în mod serios — in an earnest manner
  • Romanian: cu seriozitate — in an earnest manner
  • Spanish: encarecidamente — in an earnest manner