How to Use earnestly in a Sentence

earnestly

adverb
  • Liu earnestly flipped through her packet.
    — Jane Bua, New Yorker, 14 May 2026
  • Devil 2 treats the work more earnestly.
    — Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 12 May 2026
  • Remmick gazes at them earnestly and speaks from his heart, or what passes for it.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 18 Apr. 2025
  • To get them back on track, the teacher asks them earnestly what mariachi means to them.
    — Fidel Martinez, Los Angeles Times, 6 Sep. 2024
  • To get them back on track, the teacher asks them earnestly what mariachi means to them.
    — Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2023
  • Its attendees would respond earnestly to this pulse for much of the evening.
    — Khari Nixon, SPIN, 20 Feb. 2023
  • The child was speaking like a baby gangster, yet earnestly.
    — Catherine Lacey, New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2026
  • This also does a disservice to those who are earnestly trying to learn more about birds.
    — USA TODAY, 22 Jan. 2024
  • Evening skies should stay fairly clear until clouds move in more earnestly after midnight.
    — A. Camden Walker, Washington Post, 3 Nov. 2023
  • Active research is trying earnestly to crack the code, see my coverage at the link here.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2025
  • Eras asks us to set aside our cynicism and spend four hours earnestly enjoying ourselves.
    — Hannah Summerhill, Vogue, 14 Aug. 2023
  • Melvin appeared earnestly surprised when reporters took out their phones to post the news to social media.
    — Andrew Baggarly, The Athletic, 22 Feb. 2025
  • But here these beats play just too earnestly, deflating any potential humor in the film’s last act.
    — Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 6 Feb. 2025
  • Second, Ellis has taken a game of hide and seek a little too earnestly, and no one can find her.
    — Lincee Ray, EW.com, 18 Mar. 2022
  • My faith and beliefs — while earnestly and deeply held — should not be a legal basis for the choices of others.
    — Robert McCoppin, Chicago Tribune, 8 Aug. 2022
  • Those were the days when the All-Star Game had some meaning as each league tried earnestly to win the game.
    — Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 9 July 2024
  • But Jay Jones has apologized earnestly.
    — NBC news, 19 Oct. 2025
  • Roczen then opened up earnestly, in an honest and sincere reflection of the road one travels over a long career.
    — Maury Brown, Forbes.com, 22 May 2026
  • In one corner, a group of teenage boys wearing glittery eye shadow clasped their hands in prayer and asked, earnestly, to be taken to church.
    — Regine Cabato, Washington Post, 21 July 2023
  • No one in her family knew the identity of the young man gazing earnestly into the camera.
    — Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Dec. 2023
  • But the real Quaid is earnestly, acutely, even painfully aware of his privilege.
    — Alexis Soloski, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2025
  • But Warner, who often talks earnestly about his pursuit of perfection, hasn’t done less.
    — Eric Branch, San Francisco Chronicle, 18 Nov. 2021
  • Gaga embraced the weirdness by earnestly supporting the mouse, singing him a ballad and standing up to defend him.
    — Esther Zuckerman, The Atlantic, 9 Mar. 2025
  • The Megan rapper earnestly accepted the apology, even going as far as to place her hands over her heart.
    — Armon Sadler, VIBE.com, 2 July 2024
  • On the lawns, where the music roams free along with its listeners, every rule feels relaxed and thus more earnestly respected.
    — Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 25 Aug. 2023
  • The man then goes back to talking earnestly about the amusement park’s food options before Varitek interrupts him.
    — John Waller, BostonGlobe.com, 16 Aug. 2022
  • This is why sellers earnestly pitching their own products can do to such great effect through TikTok videos.
    — Jaimie Ding, Los Angeles Times, 3 Dec. 2023
  • Johnson conceded his own hesitation to get tested in the past, but earnestly told me it can be done nowadays with a blood test.
    — Steven Aquino, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2024
  • But the video – simply shot, on a bench in front of a spray of spring foliage – showed Kate earnestly sharing her story on her own terms and in her own words.
    — Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN, 23 Mar. 2024
  • But the fact that it’s being spoken about so publicly and earnestly by so many people is surely a reflection of a historic moment.
    — Aaron Blake, Washington Post, 1 July 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'earnestly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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