-ness

See also: ness and Ness

English

Alternative forms

• -nesse (obsolete)
• ⠰⠎ (Braille)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Germanic *-in-

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti

Proto-Germanic *-ōną

Proto-Germanic *-inōną

Proto-Indo-European *-dyé-

Proto-Germanic *-atjaną

Proto-Indo-European *-tus

Proto-Germanic *-þuz

Proto-Germanic *-assuz

Proto-Germanic *-inassuz

Proto-West Germanic *-nassī

Old English -nes

Middle English -nesse

English -ness

From Middle English -nes, -nesse, from Old English -nis, -nes, from Proto-West Germanic *-nassī, from Proto-Germanic *-inassuz.

This suffix was formed already in Proto-Germanic by false division of the final consonant *-n- of the preceding stem + the actual suffix *-assuz. The latter was in turn derived from an earlier *-at(s)-tuz, from the verbal suffix *-at-janą + the noun suffix *-þuz. Compare German -nis and Dutch -nis of the same origin.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /nəs/
  • (old-fashioned RP) IPA^(key): /nɪs/
  • (obsolete or dialectal) IPA^(key): /nɛs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /nəs/, [nɘs]
• (US) IPA^(key): /nəs/, /nɪs/, /nɛs/

Suffix

-ness (noun-forming suffix, countable and uncountable, plural -nesses)

1. Appended in general, often informally, stylistically, or jocularly, for reification of an attribute.
   • 1865 Lewis Carrol: Alice in Wonderland; CHAPTER VII: A Mad Tea-Party.

     You know you say things are "much of a muchness.." — did you ever see such a thing as a drawing of a muchness!

   • 1942 Mount Sinai Hospital (New York, N.Y.) Journal of the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, Volume 8, Part 2 p.515

     The adrenocortical carcinoma symptoms ... are moonface, abdominousness, high blood pressure, hirsutes, pink striae, plethora, decaleification, irrespective of sex...

   • 1948 Helen A. Archdale, Margaret Haig Thomas Mackworth: Time & Tide - Volume 29 - Page 407

     The Czech people and countryside of Mr Lukas' camera are universal. In the aged peasants there is none of that wrinkled, ham, old gafferishness to which we have become accustomed by clever photography, but there is the feel of the earth by which these people have lived...

2. Appended to adjectives to form nouns meaning "the state of being (the adjective)", "the quality of being (the adjective)", or "the measure of being (the adjective)".

   ‎calm + ‎-ness → ‎calmness

   ‎eerie + ‎-ness → ‎eeriness

   ‎kind + ‎-ness → ‎kindness

   ‎one + ‎-ness → ‎oneness

3. Appended to words of other parts of speech to form nouns (often nonce words or terms in philosophy) meaning the state/quality/measure of the idea represented by these words.

   ‎that + ‎-ness → ‎thatness

   ‎tree + ‎-ness → ‎treeness

   ‎thug + ‎-ness → ‎thugness

Usage notes

• If an adjective ends in -y, then this changes to -i- when -ness is suffixed. This occurs both when the -y is the suffix -y (“having the quality of”), as in mess → messy → messiness (hence -y → -i-), but also in other cases, as in comely → comeliness. It does not, however, usually occur when the -y is part of the root, as in spry → spryness.
• Plurals are formed by adding -es, e.g. happiness → happinesses.

Synonyms

• -ability
• -dom
• -hood
• -ibility
• -icity
• -ism
• -itude
• -ity
• -osity
• -ship
• -th

Derived terms

English terms suffixed with -ness

abandonedness

abandonness

abasedness

abashedness

abelianness

abidingness

abjectedness

abjectness

ablativeness

able-bodiedness

abledness

able-mindedness

ableness

abnormalness

abodelessness

abominableness

aboriginalness

abortiveness

aboundingness

aboutness

aboveness

abrasiveness

abroadness

abruptness

absent-mindedness

absentness

absoluteness

absorbedness

absorptiveness

abstemiousness

abstentiousness

abstersiveness

abstractedness

abstractiveness

abstractness

abstruseness

absurdness

abusefulness

abusiveness

Abyssinianness

academicness

Acadianness

accentedness

accentlessness

acceptableness

acceptingness

accessariness

accessibleness

accessoriness

accidentalness

accommodableness

accommodatedness

accommodateness

accommodatingness

accommodativeness

accountableness

accumulativeness

accurateness

accursedness

accusativeness

accusatoriness

accustomedness

aceness

acerbicness

acheyness

achiness

acid-fastness

acidlessness

acidness

acidulousness

acousticness

acquaintedness

acquisitiveness

acridness

acrimoniousness

actionlessness

actionness

activeness

actlessness

actorishness

actorness

actualness

acuteness

adaptableness

adaptativeness

adaptedness

adaptiveness

adaptness

addictedness

addictiveness

additiveness

addleheadedness

addleness

addlepatedness

addressedness

addresslessness

adeptness

adequateness

adhesiveness

ad hocness

ad-hocness

adiposeness

adjacentness

adjointness

adjunctiveness

adlessness

administrativeness

admirableness

admiringness

admissibleness

admittedness

adorableness

adorkableness

adroitness

adsorptiveness

adulterateness

adulterousness

adultness

adustness

advancedness

advantagedness

advantageousness

adventitiousness

adventurelessness

adventuresomeness

adventurousness

adverbialness

adversarialness

adversariness

adversativeness

adverseness

advisableness

advisedness

Aegeanness

aerialness

aerodynamicness

aestheticalness

aestheticness

AFCness

affableness

affectedness

affectingness

affectionateness

affectionlessness

affectiveness

affectlessness

affineness

affirmativeness

affixedness

afflictedness

affluentness

affrontedness

affrontingness

affrontiveness

Afghanness

aforeness

afraidness

Africaness

Africanness

Afrikaansness

Afrikanerness

afterness

afterwardness

afterwardsness

againness

againstness

agedness

agefulness

agelessness

agendalessness

agentiveness

agentlessness

agglutinativeness

aggregateness

aggressiveness

aggrievedness

aghastness

agileness

agitatedness

agrarianness

agreeableness

agreeingness

aguishness

aheadness

ahistoricalness

aimlessness

aimworthiness

Ainuness

airheadedness

airiness

airlessness

airsickness

airtightness

airworthiness

akinness

alacriousness

alamodeness

alarmingness

Alaskanness

Albanianness

Translations

appended to adjectives to form nouns meaning "the state of being...", "the quality of being...", or "the measure of being..."

• Arabic: ـِيَّة (-iyya), (several internal vowel patterns are used)
• Armenian: -ություն (-utʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: -lik (az)
• Burmese: -ခြင်း (-hkrang:), -မှု (-hmu.)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (used most frequently in loanwords, as many adjectives may be used as nouns in Chinese) -性 (zh) (xìng)

• Czech: -ost (cs) f
• Danish: -hed (da), -skab (da)
• Dutch: -heid (nl), -schap (nl), -nis (nl)
• Esperanto: -eco (eo)
• Faroese: -semi f or n, -heit f
• Finnish: -uus (fi), -yys (fi), -us (fi), -ys (fi)
• French: -ité (fr), -esse (fr) f
• Frisian:

  West Frisian: -ens, -heid, -skip

• Galician: -idade (gl) f
• Georgian: სი- -ე (si- -e), -ობა (-oba), -ება (-eba)
• German: -nis (de), -heit (de), -keit (de)
• Greek: -ότητα (el) (-ótita)
• Greenlandic: -ssuseq
• Hebrew: ־וּת f (-út)
• Hindi: -ई f (-ī)
• Hungarian: -ság (hu)/-ség (hu)
• Icelandic: -ð f, -d f, -t f
• Ido: -eso
• Indonesian: ke- -an
• Interlingua: -itate (ia), -tate, -ia, -essa, -itude, -ismo
• Irish: -acht f
• Italian: -ità, -ezza
• Japanese: -さ (ja) (-sa), -性 (ja) (-sei), (0 ending on -な adjectives)
• Khmer: ភាព (km) (phiəp), សេចក្តី (sackdəy)
• Korean: ㅁ (ko) (m)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: -tās f
• Macedonian: -ност f (-nost), -ост f (-ost), -ство n (-stvo)
• Malay: ke- -an (ms)
• Manx: -aght f
• Marathi: -पणा m (-paṇā)
• Norwegian: -skap (no)

  Bokmål: -het (no)

  Nynorsk: -leik, -heit

• Old English: -nes
• Old Norse: -naðr, -skapr
• Old Saxon: -nessi
• Polish: -ość (pl) f, -stwo (pl) n
• Portuguese: -idade (pt) f, -eza (pt) f, -ez (pt) f, -idão f
• Romani: -ipen m
• Romanian: -itate (ro) f, -tate (ro) f, -ătate (ro) f
• Russian: -ность (-nostʹ), -ость (ru) (-ostʹ), -ство (-stvo), -щи́на f (-ščína)
• Sanskrit: -ईय (-īya)
• Slovak: -osť (sk) f
• Spanish: -idad (es)
• Swahili: u-
• Swedish: -het (sv), -skap (sv)
• Tagalog: ka- -an (tl)
• Tamil: -மை (-mai)
• Telugu: -తనము (-tanamu)
• Thai: ความ (th) (kwaam), ภาพ (th) (pâap)
• Turkish: -lık (tr), -lik (tr), -luk (tr), -lük (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: ـلق (-lık), ـلك (-lik)

• Ukrainian: -ість f (-istʹ), -ство (-stvo)
• Vietnamese: sự (vi), nỗi (vi), niềm (vi)
• Welsh: -rwydd (cy)
• Yiddish: ־ניש n (-nish), ־קייט (-keyt), ־הייט (-heyt)
• Zazaki: -ey, -iye (diq), -in

Anagrams

• sens, NSSE, ENSs, SNES, SE SN, ESNs, Sens., Sens

Middle English

Suffix

-ness

1. alternative form of -nesse

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ness/, [nes]

Suffix

-ness

1. alternative form of -nes

Declension

Strong ō-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	-ness	-nessa, -nesse
accusative	-nesse	-nessa, -nesse
genitive	-nesse	-nessa
dative	-nesse	-nessum

References

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “-ness”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Scots

Alternative forms

• -nes

Etymology

From Middle English -nes, -nesse, from Old English -nis, -nes, from Proto-West Germanic *-nassī.

Suffix

-ness

1. Affixed to adjectives to form abstract nouns which denote a quality, state or condition.