Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Good faith; sincerity.
- n. Information that serves to guarantee a person's good faith, standing, and reputation; authentic credentials: "Sakharov's bona fides within the Soviet system . . . have given added weight to his message” ( Christian Science Monitor).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Good faith; fair dealing. See bona fide.
Wiktionary
- n. sincerity, good faith
- n. credentials that authenticate a person's standing or reputation
GNU Webster's 1913
- Good faith; honesty; freedom from fraud or deception.
Etymologies
- Latin bona, nominative feminine singular of bonus ("good"), + fidēs ("faith"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin bona fidēs, good faith : bona, feminine of bonus, good + fidēs, faith. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“No one had ever written a book about Swagger, and he’d never been the marine celebrity with the SNIPR-1 license plate that Carl Hitchcock had been, he was no gun show autograph seller and nobody had ever named rifles, ammo, or shooting matches after him, but it didn’t take long to establish his bona fides as a war hero.”
“He did not know Lieutenant Yoshida, but upon receipt of a letter, a quick call to people who would know and Dr. Otowa was very well connected proved Yoshida’s bona fides as a first-rate man, almost a legend, who had retired to Oakland, California, to be near his daughter, who had married an American of Japanese ancestry.”
“If you doubt my bona fides may I refer you to my former chief, Colonel Colin Campbell? (”
“But then only Laura was suspicious of the bona fides of Twister Marshmallow.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bona fides’.
-
Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
-
Appellationes Latinae
Latin terms
quidnunc, experimentum crucis, cui bono, carpe diem, pons asinorum, sine qua non, lux et veritas, oculus uterque, ancora imparo, mirabile visu, pro forma, paucis verbis and 108 more...
-
CravinforClavin's Words
bellicose, megalopolis, spurious, interstitial, elegiac, crushing, proselytize, strident, hirsute, peripatetic, stultify, apoplectic and 66 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bona fides.
biocon The term "bona fides" (L. bɒnā fĭdēs = good faith or trust) is singular. The plural of this term is bonae fides.
The plural of "bona fide" (ablative case of a fem. 5th declension noun), which literally means "with good faith," is "bonis fidebus." See bona fide. Dec 4, 2011