- the quality of being honest
- She answered all my questions with her usual honesty.
- His honesty is not in question.
Extra ExamplesTopics Personal qualitiesb2- ‘Don't you love me?’ ‘I don't know,’ she said with brutal honesty.
- Are you questioning my honesty?
- He has the honesty and integrity to be chairman.
- I always expect total honesty from my employees.
- I appreciate your honesty about this.
- She answered the questions with complete honesty.
- She had the honesty to admit her mother was right.
- You need ruthless intellectual honesty about your own skills, weaknesses and motives.
- At least he had the honesty to admit he was wrong.
- She prided herself on her honesty.
- They have a reputation for scrupulous honesty.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- absolute
- complete
- total
- …
- admire
- appreciate
- value
- …
- with honesty
- honesty about
- honesty and integrity
- in all honesty
- in honesty
- …
Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French honeste, from Latin honestas, from honestus, from honos, honor. The original sense was ‘honour, respectability’, later ‘decorum, virtue, chastity’.
Idioms
See honesty in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryin (all) honesty
- used to state a fact or an opinion that, though true, may seem disappointing
- The book isn't, in all honesty, as good as I expected.
- In all honesty, the book was not as good as I expected.
- Who in honesty can blame her?
Check pronunciation:
honesty