sincere

See also: Sincere, sinceré, and sincère

English

Etymology

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

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

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /sɪnˈsɪə(ɹ)/
• 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.

2. Meant truly or earnestly.

   She gave it a sincere, if misguided effort.

3. (archaic) clean; pure

Synonyms

• earnest

Antonyms

• insincere

Related terms

• cereal
• Ceres
• crescent
• sincerity
• sincereness

Translations

earnest

• Arabic: مُخْلِص‎ (muḵliṣ)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• 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 (zh), 真诚 (zh) (zhēnchéng)

• Czech: upřímný (cs) m
• Danish: oprigtig
• Dutch: oprecht (nl)
• Esperanto: sincera (eo)
• Estonian: siiras (et)
• Finnish: vilpitön (fi)
• French: sincère (fr)
• Galician: sincero (gl) m, franco (gl) m
• Georgian: გულწრფელი (gulc̣rpeli)
• German: aufrichtig (de)
• Greek: ειλικρινής (el) m or f (eilikrinís)
• 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)
• Khmer: ស្និទ្ធស្នាល (km) (snǝt snaal), សច្ចំ (km) (saccaŋ), ចចាកអារ៉ាក (km) (cɑcaak-aaraak)

• Korean: 진실하다 (ko) (jinsilhada)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: دڵ پاک‎ (dill pak)

• Lao: ຈິງໃຈ (ching chai)
• Latin: sincērus
• Macedonian: искрен (iskren)
• Malay: ikhlas
• Maori: tinihangakore, motuhenga, ngākau pono
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norman: sîncéthe m or f
• Norwegian: oppriktig
• Polish: szczery (pl) m
• Portuguese: sincero (pt) m
• Romanian: sincer (ro)
• Russian: и́скренний (ru) (ískrennij)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: искрен

  Roman: iskren (sh)

• Slovak: úprimný
• Slovene: iskren (sl)
• Spanish: sincero (es)
• Swedish: uppriktig (sv)
• Thai: จริงใจ (th) (jing-jai)
• Turkish: samimi (tr), içten (tr), yürekten (tr), kalpten (tr)
• Ukrainian: щи́рий (ščýryj)
• 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, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• sincere in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• cereins, ceresin, cerines, renices

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Esperanto

Etymology

sincera +‎ -e

Pronunciation

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

Adverb

sincere

1. sincerely

Antonyms

• malsincere (“insincerely”)

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Italian

Adjective

sincere f pl

1. feminine plural of sincero

Anagrams

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

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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

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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

• → English: sincere
• French: sincère

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Spanish

Verb

sincere

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of sincerarse.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of sincerarse.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of sincerarse.