ENGLISH
REFERENCE

bona

adj.
C2 Proficiency US //ˈboʊnə// bona

adj. real or genuine. It is often part of the phrase 'bona fide', which describes something that is the real thing and not a fake.

adj. genuine, authentic, or carried out in good faith. Derived from Latin, it most frequently appears as part of the fixed expression 'bona fide'.


SIMPLE

He is a bona fide expert in his field.

CONTEXTUAL

The museum confirmed that the painting was a bona fide masterpiece from the seventeenth century.

COMPLEX

Establishing a bona fide claim to the inheritance required the legal team to produce original documents that had been sealed in a private vault for decades.

Usage

Primarily used as part of the compound adjective 'bona fide', which typically precedes the noun it modifies.

Pitfall

a bona fido agreementa bona fide agreementLearners sometimes misspell the Latin ending as 'fido' (the common dog name) instead of 'fide'.

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