Meaning & use
hone
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To improve a skill, ability or plan little by little until it is very good.
Grammar: Takes an object: hone your skills, not hone on your skills.
Patterns
- hone something
- hone your skills
She spent the summer honing her piano technique.
The team honed its strategy before the final.
Debating helps students hone their arguments.
verbtransitive
To sharpen a blade or tool by rubbing it on a fine stone.
Grammar: The original, literal use.
Patterns
- hone a blade
- hone a knife
The chef honed the knife before slicing the fish.
He honed the axe on a whetstone.
Honing the blade regularly keeps it keen.
Word forms
| third person singular | hones |
|---|---|
| past tense | honed |
| past participle | honed |
| -ing form | honing |
Common combinations
- hone your skills
- Volunteering is a great way to hone your skills.
- hone a craft
- He honed his craft over twenty years.
- hone your instincts
- Years in the field honed her instincts.
- finely honed
- The speech was finely honed and very persuasive.
- hone a message
- The campaign honed its message before the debate.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sharpen
- Sharpen is the everyday word for blades and also works for skills, while hone suggests careful, gradual fine-tuning.
- refine
- Refine stresses removing flaws to improve something, often a method or idea.
- polish
- Polish suggests final touches to make something look or sound better, so it is lighter than hone.
- perfect
- Perfect implies reaching flawlessness, while hone only says you are getting closer.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: hone or home in on? hone or own?
hone vs home in on
Home in on means to move straight toward a target. Hone means to sharpen or improve, so hone in on is often considered an error.
hone vs own
Hone sounds like own with an h, but they are unrelated.
Practice
Pilots spend hundreds of hours in simulators to ___ their landing skills.
Choose one answer.
Hone means to improve through practice. Home needs in on after it, and hound and hoard have different meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hone”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.