hardness

English

Alternative forms

• hardnesse (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English hardness, hardnesse, from Old English heardness, from heard + -ness. Equivalent to hard +‎ -ness.

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: härdʹnəs, IPA^(key): /ˈhɑɹdnəs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑːdnəs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hard‧ness

Noun

hardness (countable and uncountable, plural hardnesses)

1. The quality of being hard.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 38:37–38:

     Who can number the cloudes in wiſedom? or who can ſtay the bottles of heauen, / When the duſt groweeh^{[sic – meaning groweth]} into hardneſſe and the clods cleaue faſt together?

2. An instance of this quality; hardship.
3. (inorganic chemistry) The quantity of calcium carbonate dissolved in water, usually expressed in parts per million (ppm).
4. The resistance to scratching, cutting, indentation or abrasion of a metal or other solid material.
5. (physics) The penetrating ability of electromagnetic radiation, such as x-rays; generally, the shorter the wavelength, the harder and more penetrating the radiation.
6. The measure of resistance to damage of a facility, equipment, installation, or telecommunications infrastructure when subjected to attack.
7. (countable, engineering) A measure of how hard a material is

   The hardness of the material was high.

Derived terms

• hardness of hearing
• Knoop hardness
• macrohardness
• microhardness
• total hardness
• Vickers hardness
• water hardness

 

Translations

quality of being hard

• Bulgarian: твърдост (bg) f (tvǎrdost), издръжливост (bg) f (izdrǎžlivost)
• Catalan: duresa (ca) f
• Czech: tvrdost f
• Dutch: hardheid (nl) f
• French: dureté (fr) f
• Friulian: durece f
• Galician: dureza f
• German: Härte (de) f
• Greek:

  Ancient: σκληρότης f (sklērótēs)

• Hungarian: keménység (hu)
• Ido: hardeso (io)
• Italian: durezza (it) f
• Latin: dūritās f
• Latvian: cietība f
• Malayalam: കാഠിന്യം (ml) (kāṭhinyaṁ)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hardhet (no) m or f

• Occitan: duretat (oc) f
• Portuguese: dureza (pt) f
• Quechua: sinchi
• Russian: твёрдость (ru) f (tvjórdostʹ)
• Sardinian: duresa f
• Spanish: dureza (es) f
• Swedish: hårdhet (sv)
• Tagalog: katigasan
• Thai: ความแข็ง (th) (kwaam-kɛ̌ng)
• Turkish: zorluk (tr)
• Walloon: durté (wa) f

See also

• hardiness

References

• “hardness”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Dashners