sincere

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

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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɪnˈsɪə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɪnˈsɪɹ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

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.

   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter III, in The French Revolution: A History , volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book I (The Feast of Pikes), page 19:

     Tumid blustering, with more or less of sincerity, which need not be entirely sincere, yet the sincerer the better, is like to go far.

   • 1967 June, Drake Maynard, If, volume 17, number 6, page 160:

     My sincerest apologies to Brother Ron Smith in the December ish.

   • 2003, “The Outsider”, performed by A Perfect Circle:

     If you choose to pull the trigger, should your drama prove sincere
     Do it somewhere far away from here

2. Meant truly or earnestly.

   She gave it a sincere if misguided effort.

   • 1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 161:

     The message that through sincere teshuvah and resolution, light and gladness can be achieved by all, is most fitting for the opening of the Yom Kippur service.

3. (archaic) clean; pure

• earnest

• insincere

• cereal
• Ceres
• crescent
• sincerity
• sincereness

• “sincere”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “sincere”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “sincere”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• sincere in Britannica Dictionary
• sincere in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary
• sincere in Ozdic collocation dictionary
• sincere in WordReference English Collocations

• cereins, ceresin, cerines, renices

sincera +‎ -e

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

sincere

1. sincerely

• malsincere (“insincerely”)

sincere f pl

1. feminine plural of sincero

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

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

sincēre

1. vocative masculine singular of sincērus

• “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

First attested in 1441, borrowed from Latin sincērus.^[1]

sincere m or f (plural sinceres)

1. sincere (genuinely meaning what one says or does)

• French: sincère
• → English: sincere

sincere

1. inflection of sincerar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative