acuteness

English

Etymology tree

English acute

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

English acuteness

From acute + -ness.

acuteness (usually uncountable, plural acutenesses)

The quality of being acute or pointed.
the acuteness of an angle
Of the senses or feelings: the faculty of precise discernment or perception; sensitiveness.
By acuteness of feeling, we perceive small objects or slight impressions.

By acuteness of intellect, we discern nice distinctions.
Of sounds: shrillness; high pitch.
(medicine) Violence of a disease, which brings it speedily to a crisis.
- 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Dr. Lanyon’s Narrative”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 99:
  At the time, I set it down to some idiosyncratic, personal distaste, and merely wondered at the acuteness of the symptoms; but I have since had reason to believe the cause to lie much deeper in the nature of man, and to turn on some nobler hinge than the principle of hatred.
Shrewdness, quickness of mind.

quality of being pointed — see also acuity

of the senses or feelings: sensitiveness — see also acuity

shrillness

violence of a disease

shrewdness, quickness of mind