Synonyms for sincere
- candid
- earnest
- forthright
- genuine
- heartfelt
- outspoken
- real
- serious
- true
- trustworthy
- aboveboard
- actual
- artless
- bona fide
- dead-level
- dear
- devout
- faithful
- frank
- guileless
- honest to God
- like it is
- meant
- natural
- no fooling
- no-nonsense
- on the level
- on the line
- on up and up
- open
- plain
- pretensionless
- regular
- righteous
- saintly
- square
- sure enough
- true-blue
- twenty-four carat
- unaffected
- undesigning
- undissembled
- unfeigned
- unpretentious
- up-front
- wholehearted
Antonyms for sincere
- counterfeit
- deceitful
- devious
- dishonest
- false
- flippant
- insincere
- invalid
- trivial
- unimportant
- unreal
- unserious
- untrustworthy
- tricky
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR SINCERE
The devotion to and concern for our institutions are deep and sincere.
He put the question with an eagerness that seemed all sincere.
A breath of sincere, touching admiration came from every side.
"Then I'm sure these illuminations of his for the peace are none of the most sincere," said O'Mooney.
The exclamation was sincere: at this moment she thought as she spoke.
He expressed a most earnest and sincere wish to make his wife happy.
My heart, as I have heretofore said, is a sincere sharer in all your distresses.
Of all that is noble and true in the Puritan character we are sincere admirers.
Though hypocritical, he was, as we have before said, a most sincere believer.
The girl greeted him with a note of sincere pleasure in her surprise.
WORD ORIGIN
1530s, "pure, unmixed," from Middle French sincere (16c.), from Latin sincerus, of things, "whole, clean, pure, uninjured, unmixed," figuratively "sound, genuine, pure, true, candid, truthful," of uncertain origin. Ground sense seems to be "that which is not falsified." Meaning "free from pretense or falsehood" in English is from 1530s.
There has been a temptation to see the first element as Latin sine "without." But there is no etymological justification for the common story that the word means "without wax" (*sin cerae), which is dismissed out of hand by OED and others, and the stories invented to justify that folk etymology are even less plausible. Watkins has it as originally "of one growth" (i.e. "not hybrid, unmixed"), from PIE *sm-ke-ro-, from *sem- "one" (see same) + root of crescere "to grow" (see crescent).