sincere
- 1Genuine and heartfelt, truly meaning what one says or does, without pretense.
Her condolences struck everyone in the room as sincere.
He made a sincere effort to understand their concerns before responding.
Similargenuine, heartfelt, honest, earnest, real
Oppositefalse, fake, feigned, hypocritical
Note
Both ways of comparing are in use: more sincere or sincerer, most sincere or sincerest. The short forms often appear in set phrases. Thomas Carlyle writes "the sincerer the better" in The French Revolution (1837), and "my sincerest apologies" is a stock formula. Either form is correct, but sincerest belongs most naturally to fixed expressions of apology, thanks and sympathy.
- 2Meant truly or earnestly, expressed with real feeling rather than for appearance.
The committee offered its sincere congratulations to the award winners.
He expressed a sincere desire to repair the friendship.
Similarheartfelt, genuine, earnest, wholehearted, real
Oppositehollow, perfunctory, feigned
Note
Here the word describes the act rather than the person: an effort, a desire, a set of congratulations. It pairs easily with a concession, as in a sincere if misguided effort, which grants good faith while doubting the result. Where the 'heartfelt' meaning judges whether someone means it, this one judges what they offered. That is why it sits so readily before nouns of feeling and attempt.
- 3Clean and pure; free of any foreign matter or contamination.
The recipe called for sincere honey, untouched by wax or comb.
Pilgrims came to draw the sincere water of the sacred well.
Note
An archaic use in which sincere honey or water is simply unmixed, with nothing added. It stays close to the Latin source, sincerus 'genuine', built from roots meaning 'together' and 'grow'. A popular story derives the word from sine cera, 'without wax', but that is folk etymology, not history. Use this sense only for deliberate period flavor, since modern readers will hear 'heartfelt'.
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Origin
From Middle French sincere, from Latin sincerus ("genuine"), which traces back to Proto-Indo-European roots *sem- ("together") and *ḱer- ("grow"). Despite a popular folk etymology, it does not come from Latin sine ("without") and cera ("wax").