honesty
- 01 B1 Intermediate
the quality of being truthful and not lying, stealing, or cheating.
the quality or condition of being honest, characterized by truthfulness, integrity, and the absence of deceit.
Simple“I appreciate your honesty about why you were late for the meeting.”
In context“The candidate's brutal honesty regarding his past failures actually earned him more respect from the board than a polished excuse would have.”
UsageUncountable in this sense.
Antonyms - 02 C2 Proficiency
a garden plant with purple flowers and flat, round, silver seed pods.
any of various plants in the genus Lunaria, especially Lunaria annua, cultivated for its fragrant flowers and translucent, disc-shaped silicles.
Simple“We dried some honesty from the garden to use as a winter decoration.”
In context“The silver seed pods of the honesty plant remained on their stalks long after the purple petals had fallen, catching the low autumn light.”
UsageCountable when referring to the individual plant.
Teacher's tipThis is a specialized botanical term; most learners will only encounter the abstract noun for truthfulness.
Synonymssilver platemoney plant
“She adds that honesty really matters and you should be truthful about your experience and confident in what you can offer.”
“Change begins with honesty … Unless we are blunt about what went wrong, we won’t turn things around.”
From Middle English honeste (“honour, integrity”), from Old French honesté (compare modern French honnêteté) (honest + -y); the plant, from the visibility of the seeds through the translucent pods. Displaced native Old English sōþfæstnes; and non-native Middle English prodonomee, from Old French prodomie.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.