hone

¹ American  

[hohn] / hoʊn /

verb (used with object)

honed, honing

1. to make more acute or effective; improve; perfect.

   to hone one's skills.

2. to sharpen on a whetstone with a fine, compact texture.

   to hone a carving knife.

3. to enlarge or finish (a hole) using a precision tool with a mechanically rotated abrasive tip.

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noun

• hones
  plural

1. a whetstone of fine, compact texture for sharpening razors and other cutting tools.

2. a precision tool with a mechanically rotated abrasive tip, for enlarging holes to precise dimensions.

hone ² American  

[hohn] / hoʊn /

verb (used without object)

honed, honing

1. South Midland and Southern U.S. to yearn; long.

   to hone for the farm life; to hone after peach pie.

2. Archaic. to moan and groan.

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hone ¹ British  

/ həʊn /

noun

1. a fine whetstone, esp for sharpening razors

2. a tool consisting of a number of fine abrasive slips held in a machine head, rotated and reciprocated to impart a smooth finish to cylinder bores, etc

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verb

1. (tr) to sharpen or polish with or as if with a hone

hone ² British  

/ həʊn /

verb

1. to yearn or pine

2. to moan or grieve

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Usage

Hone is sometimes wrongly used where home is meant: this device makes it easier to home in on (not hone in on ) the target

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• honer
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• hones
  plural

Etymology

Origin of hone¹

First recorded before 950; Middle English noun hone, hain “whetstone”; Old English hān “stone, boundary stone, rock”; cognate with Old Norse hein “hone”; akin to cone

Origin of hone²

First recorded in 1590–1600; from Anglo-French honer (unrecorded); Old French hogner “to grumble, growl,” from Germanic; compare Old Saxon hōnian “to abuse, revile”

Explanation

The verb hone means to sharpen skills. When you practice shooting baskets every day after school, you are honing your skills as a basketball player. Hone, the verb, literally means to sharpen with a hone, a whetstone used to sharpen cutting tools. Use hone to describe someone working hard, perfecting or sharpening skills, as in "She is honing her skills as an actress by working in community theater." Hone, which rhymes with phone, is from the Old English word, han, meaning "stone, rock."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hone hones honed honing

"Many are good providers, but some are bad. That's the nature of a government scheme: people will hone in on it and try and slice off amounts for themselves."

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

It also allowed him to hone his guitar skills and make connections within London’s burgeoning blues scene.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

To play Aemond, Mitchell looked at MMA and cage fighters to hone in on the character’s agile, brutal fighting style.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026

Over three decades, Smith helped successive Fed chairs with differing styles hone the communication apparatus Warsh now wants to prune.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026

The leashes of the hawks were plaited out of white hone leather.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Even as Cursor hones in on Composer, the company’s model-agnostic platform remains a key selling point, according to Ram Bala, professor of AI and analytics at Santa Clara University.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 19, 2026

Even as China hones its formal sanctions toolkit, it still turns to informal methods when legal and political justification is thin.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 30, 2025

Brotherhood further hones that portrayal by writing John as a man making the same uneasy bargain to reengage with strangers as the rest of us.

From Salon ● Mar. 26, 2025

But it’s in solitude where he hones the focus and intent to make a baseball go where he demands it to go with frightening consistency.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 19, 2024

All my energy now hones in on my task.

From "Warcross" by Marie Lu

Once alerted to the allegations against her, investigators seem to have honed in quickly on Zhykovych, 50, and Reut, 34, using Berezovska's phone records.

From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026

"I have really honed in on my game and realised I don't have to play a spectacular point every time to win," said Gauff.

From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026

“I just really honed in on my game and realized I don’t have to play a spectacular point every time to win, even though there were some spectacular points,” Gauff said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

The Islamic Republic’s evolving strategic doctrine was first honed at home.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026

The second time she came, Alice was stijl pondering over those wild women with their packets of lye, their honed razors, the keloids here, here and there.

From "Jazz" by Toni Morrison

The 19-year-old, sporting a budding beard, usually operates from home, filling lulls by watching the TV show Criminal Minds or honing his drone-flying skills on a simulator.

From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026

L.A. has its own chapter, honing in on the “noughties” — the English term for the period between 2000 to 2009.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

Unlike most of his predecessors, he had not spent decades honing his political skills and building alliances with colleagues.

From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026

Schools sharpen students’ thinking and research skills, he noted, but higher education hasn’t been as good at honing students’ applied skills — and for AI, that includes knowing when to responsibly use the technology.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026

He had his own cuttlebone that he rubbed the sides of his beak against like a knife grinder honing his blade.

From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly

Related Words

• whet