honest
showing uprightness and fairness; not deceitful: Honest dealings remain central to the corporation's core values.
gained or obtained fairly: honest wealth.
genuine or unadulterated: honest commodities.
respectable; having a good reputation: an honest name.
humble, plain, or unadorned.
Archaic. chaste; virtuous.
Origin of honest
1Other words for honest
1 | trustworthy, truthful, veracious; conscientious, ethical, good, incorruptible, moral, principled, scrupulous; fair, honorable, just |
2 | upright |
4 | aboveboard, candid, direct, forthcoming, forthright, foursquare, frank, free-spoken, free-hearted, open, open-hearted, out-front, outspoken, plain, plain-spoken, straight, straightforward, unguarded, unreserved, up-front; artless, genuine, guileless, ingenuous, natural, simple, sincere, unaffected |
5 | actual, authentic, bona fide, echt, genuine, real, sure-enough, true; pure, unadulterated |
6 | esteemed, estimable, reputable, respected, of good repute, well-reputed |
7 | reliable, trusty; accurate, exact, faithful, precise |
Opposites for honest
1 | lying, mendacious, untruthful; corrupt, dishonest, immoral, unconscionable, unethical, unprincipled, unscrupulous; dishonorable |
4 | dissembling, uncandid, unforthcoming; affected, artful, artificial, disingenuous, guileful, insincere, phony |
5 | bogus, fake, mock, phony, pseudo, sham, unauthentic |
6 | disreputable |
7 | unreliable |
Other words from honest
- hon·est·ness, noun
- o·ver·hon·est, adjective
- o·ver·hon·est·ly, adverb
- o·ver·hon·est·ness, noun
- qua·si-hon·est, adjective
- qua·si-hon·est·ly, adverb
Words Nearby honest
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use honest in a sentence
Well, that’s the contract we have with each other, that people will be honest with you.
“People want to believe”: How Love Fraud builds an absorbing docuseries around a romantic con man | Alissa Wilkinson | September 4, 2020 | VoxReally, if I’m really honest with you, the main reason I didn’t want the job, the main reason I tried to quit, is because the pressure was super, super intense.
Tan France Goes Deep on Racism and When He Almost Quit ‘Queer Eye’ | Eugene Robinson | September 3, 2020 | OzyWhen I hear you say that, if I’m 100% honest, that sounds like talking points.
New personalities entering the crypto world—from Paul Tudor Jones to William Shatner to Olympian Christie Rampone—are helping initiate an honest conversation about whether our financial systems are helping or hurting us all.
Because it’s time for the brands to build honest and transparent relationships with consumers, which is going to lead to stronger trust in advertising.
Five great display and video advertising tactics to increase relevance and revenue in a cookie-less world | Anastasia-Yvoni Spiliopoulou | August 24, 2020 | Search Engine Watch
What matters is being honest, humble, and a faithful and loyal friend, father and member of your community.
Abramoff’s Advice for Virginia’s New Jailhouse Guv | Tim Mak, Jackie Kucinich | January 7, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTThe Times of Israel even applauded Netanyahu for finally being honest about his views on the issue of Palestine.
In the Middle East, the Two-State Solution Is Dead | Dean Obeidallah | January 2, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTTo be honest, I think a lot of good essay writing comes out of that.
Daphne Merkin on Lena Dunham, Book Criticism, and Self-Examination | Mindy Farabee | December 26, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThere is a brutally honest section of the book about how you fell out of love with your wife, and essentially chose soccer.
So I’m sitting with my daughter and all of her friends—who are 13—and she says ‘Dad, can I be honest with you?
With childlike confidence he follows the advice of some more or less honest dealer.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3) | Charles James WillsSometimes necessity makes an honest man a knave: and a rich man a honest man, because he has no occasion to be a knave.
They will reach you by the hands of Mr. Mackenzie, a worldly-minded Scotch merchant, but honest as to earthly things.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3) | Charles James WillsIf they are still Moderns and alive, I defy you to bury them if you are discussing living questions in a full and honest way.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation | H. G. (Herbert George) WellsA world that has known five years of fighting has lost its taste for the honest drudgery of work.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice | Stephen Leacock
British Dictionary definitions for honest
/ (ˈɒnɪst) /
not given to lying, cheating, stealing, etc; trustworthy
not false or misleading; genuine
just or fair: honest wages
characterized by sincerity and candour: an honest appraisal
without pretensions or artificial traits: honest farmers
archaic (of a woman) respectable
honest broker a mediator in disputes, esp international ones
honest Injun (interjection) school slang genuinely, really
honest to God or honest to goodness
(adjective) completely authentic
(interjection) an expression of affirmation or surprise
make an honest woman of to marry (a woman, esp one who is pregnant) to prevent scandal
Origin of honest
1Derived forms of honest
- honestness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with honest
In addition to the idioms beginning with honest
- honest to God
also see:
- come by (honestly)
- open (honest) and aboveboard
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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