word of honor
8
4.0
- noun
- /wɜrd əv ˈɒnər/
- Formal
:
palabra de honor
- I give you my word of honor that I will keep your secret.
- give my word of honor
Examples
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You have my word of honor; I will not let you down.
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I give you my word of honor!
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I believe your word of honor.
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I give you my word of honor.
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- I trust this man and he has my word of honor.
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On your word of honor? - On my word of honor.
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On your word of honor, please!
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You have my word of honor.
Fiction book (1992) -
Give me your word of honor.
Blog text (8) -
- He gave me his word of honor that he wouldn't run away.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A statement by someone saying they will or will not do something
784
3.6
A promise that someone will do something
385
3.6
A formal promise made in a serious or official situation
293
2.7
A written promise that something will meet standards or happen
279
3.4
A serious promise to do or not do something, often for religious reasons
103
3.4
A firm promise to do or not do something
A formal statement saying something is true instead of swearing an oath
A solemn promise of loyalty or trust
Antonyms
How Trustworthy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'a solemn promise' is directly built from 'word' used as 'a promise' together with 'of honor' qualifying its seriousness, so a learner who knows both constituent meanings can compose the overall sense. This genitive/compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically (e.g. Spanish 'palabra de honor') and follows straightforward English noun + of + noun semantics, making it transparent to B1 learners.
Etymology
The phrase word of honor may come from old times when a person's spoken word was tied to their honor; breaking that word would ruin their good name, so promising on your word of honor was a very serious pledge. That's why it means 'a solemn promise' today.