Dishonest

How to spell dishonest

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce dishonest

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dishonest mean?

1. adjectiveBehaving in a way that is deceitful, untruthful, or lacking in integrity.

Dishonest in a sentence

• The auditor flagged a dishonest entry in the company accounts.

• It would be dishonest to claim credit for work you never did.

Where does dishonest come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from the prefix dis-, meaning 'not' or 'the reverse of', attached to honest. Honest itself travelled into English through Old French oneste from the Latin honestus, which meant 'honourable, respectable, worthy of regard', a sense rooted in honos (later honor) meaning 'esteem' or 'public dignity'. The compound form appears in late Middle English as deshoneste, borrowed from Old French, where it first carried a broader sense of 'shameful' or 'dishonourable' before narrowing to its modern meaning of untruthful or fraudulent. A useful spelling memory is that the h in honest stays silent in speech but must still be written, and the prefix is simply dis-, not the doubled diss- that some writers wrongly add.

How the word is built

• dis- (not, opposite of)
• honest (truthful, from Latin honestus 'honourable')