Sincerely meaning: honestly, then a formal goodbye

Honest, as an adverb

Sincerely means in an honest way, meaning what you say. “I sincerely hope the lift is fixed by Monday” is a true wish from someone on the ninth floor. The root is a Latin word for whole, clean and unmixed, so a sincere apology was once an apology with nothing added.

A letter closing since 1702

As a sign-off, sincerely is on record from 1702. That’s three centuries of letters before anyone used it to close an email about the car park. It stayed formal the whole way, which is why it sits awkwardly in a chat window.

Yours sincerely, yours faithfully, sincerely yours

The forms split by who the letter is to, and by which side of the Atlantic it’s sent from.

A reader with a name gets sincerely, and a reader with only a job title gets faithfully. Get it the wrong way round and nobody dies, though someone in HR will notice.

Cover letters and applications

A cover letter is the last common home for sincerely. The reader is a stranger with a name, the document gets read slowly, and best regards can look a little casual in a PDF. Sincerely is the safe choice because nobody notices it, and noticing nothing is all a cover letter sign-off needs.

Sincerely and the youngest workers

Sincerely has found an unlikely fan base. Among Gen Z workers who sign off their emails, 35% write sincerely, second only to thanks. British workers use it more than Americans, 40% to 33%.

So a letter closing from 1702 has a second career with people born since 1997, most of whom have never bought a stamp for work.

Sincerely on paper and on screen

On paper, the closing sits above a handwritten signature, with the typed name below it and the job title under that. Email keeps the closing and the typed name and drops the ink. That’s why sincerely in an email can look like a letter that lost its envelope.

Official letters

The US Navy’s correspondence manual makes “Sincerely,” the standard close for routine letters from its headquarters and for replies to members of Congress. Its email chapter suggests “Sincerely yours” for civilians. In replies, it swaps in V/R or R/, depending on who outranks whom.

The same list keeps warm regards for thank-you notes and condolences, and offers sincerely or all the best to everyone else. Even an institution with a rulebook for commas lets you pick.

Too stiff for colleagues

In a thread with people you see every day, sincerely reads like a letter from the bank. Colleagues use regards, best regards or cheers, and keep sincerely for the formal letter attached to the email. Sincerely is the formal end of the sign-off scale and cheers the casual one, and the plain-English jargon dictionary has an entry for each.

For a closing between the two, there are ways to end an email for every mood, from best regards to unhinged.

Sincerely in a signature block

Some people put sincerely in their email signature, so it lands under every reply, including “ok” and “running 5 min late”. A sincerely that goes out automatically on everything is the one sign-off guaranteed to be insincere. If a closing must live in the signature, best regards survives the context better.

Sine cera, without wax

A popular story traces sincere to the Latin sine cera, “without wax”. It sounds like something a keynote opens with. Dictionary makers reject it outright. Nothing supports the wax reading, and the stories told to prop it up are weaker still.

What the root probably was

The likelier guesses point to “of one growth”, meaning unmixed, or to a lost Latin word for whole and intact. Nobody has settled it. Either way, the sign-off promises a message with nothing hidden in it, which is a lot to ask of a complaint about the parking.

Sincerely on a complaint

Signing a complaint “sincerely” tells the reader the writer has gone formal. An email to facilities that opens “To whom it may concern” and closes with sincerely is about the parking, and it will be forwarded.

Sincerely from the company

Companies use it in the other direction, on letters that change your terms. A note about a new pension provider or a smaller bonus pool closes with sincerely and a printed name nobody has met. The more formal the closing, the less likely the news is good.

A cover letter signed sincerely

Subject: Application: Operations Coordinator, ref 2291

Dear Ms Patel, please find my CV and cover letter attached for the Operations Coordinator role. I have run scheduling for a 40-person team for three years and can start in October.

Sincerely Goodbye, Daniel Okafor