hone in

hone·in
US/hoʊn ɪn/UK/həʊn ɪn/

A form of home in — To draw close to a destination, especially using radar; to move towards a target.

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Meanings

verbhone in (third-person singular simple present hones in, present participle honing in, simple past and past participle honed in)

present singular third person hones in · participle present honing in · participle past honed in · past honed in

  1. alternativeproscribedAlternative form of home in.

    More than half of those are completely ignored by de Róiste. He hones in on only 400 of those, scattered around the country.

    2016 April 18, Harry McGee, “All you need to know about tight race for those Seanad seats”, in The Irish Times, archived from the original on 02 Feb 2017
    2 more examples

    On June 12th The Economist’s pages featured an activist investor “honing in on the dearth of energy experience” on a company’s board. A few readers honed in on a solecism: […]

    2021 July 15, “Sometimes solecisms can reveal linguistic ingenuity”, in The Economist, →ISSN, archived from the original on 21 Jul 2021

    The mainstream media hones in on bad news stories where UK railways are concerned, yet gives scant attention to the many items of good news emerging from the network.

    2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway facts: Aylesbury (2009)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 61

Origin

By confusion between hone and home.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

hone in. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hone%20in

MLA

“hone in.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hone%20in. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hone in,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hone%20in.

Source: hone in on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.