Meaning & use
a sincere person
Last updated
Meanings
phrasefixed phrase
Someone who says what they truly think and feel, without pretending or deceiving.
Grammar: Used as a noun phrase after 'be' or 'seem': He is a sincere person.
Patterns
- be a sincere person
- seem like a sincere person
- a sincere person who ...
Everyone trusts Maya because she is a sincere person who never says one thing and does another.
He may not be charming, but he is a sincere person, and that matters more to me.
When you apologize, try to sound like a sincere person rather than someone reading a script.
phrasefixed phrase
Used to describe someone whose efforts or feelings come from real belief, not from politeness.
Grammar: Often followed by 'in' plus a noun: a sincere person in their faith.
Patterns
- a sincere person in something
She is a sincere person in her faith and never misses a service.
As a sincere person in his support for the team, he travels to every away game.
Common combinations
- a genuinely sincere person
- Her colleagues describe her as a genuinely sincere person.
- come across as a sincere person
- He comes across as a sincere person in interviews.
- a sincere person at heart
- She's a sincere person at heart, even when she jokes around.
- sound like a sincere person
- On the phone, you want to sound like a sincere person, not a salesperson.
Synonyms and how they differ
- honest
- Focuses on telling the truth; a sincere person may also be honest, but sincerity is more about genuine feeling than about facts.
- genuine
- Describes someone who is not fake; it is slightly stronger and more informal than 'sincere'.
- earnest
- Suggests serious, heartfelt belief, often a little formal or old-fashioned compared with 'sincere'.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: a sincere person or serious?
a sincere person vs serious
'Serious' means not joking or not light-hearted; a sincere person can be funny and still mean what they say.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
The article 'a' comes before the adjective in English: a sincere person. Option 4 misses the article, and options 2 and 3 put the words in an impossible order.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “a sincere person”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.