inwardness

English

Etymology

Middle English inwardnesse; equivalent to inward +‎ -ness

Noun

inwardness (countable and uncountable, plural inwardnesses)

1. The characteristic of being inward; directed towards the inside.
2. (obsolete) Internal or true state; essential nature.

   the inwardness of conduct

   • Dr. H. More

     Sense can not arrive to the inwardness of things.

3. (obsolete) intimacy; familiarity
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4 Scene 1

     BENEDICK. Signior Leonato, let the friar advise you:

     And though you know my inwardness and love

     Is very much unto the prince and Claudio,

     Yet, by mine honour, I will deal in this

     As secretly and justly as your soul

     Should with your body.

4. (obsolete) heartiness; earnestness
   • Matthew Arnold

     What was wanted was more inwardness, more feeling.

Synonyms

• (true state; essential nature): crux, gist; See also Thesaurus:gist

Translations

true state; essential nature

• Bulgarian: същност (bg) f (sǎštnost), природа (bg) f (priroda)
• Russian: су́щность (ru) n (súščnostʹ), истинная (istinnaja) приро́да (priróda) (ístinnaja priróda)f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “inwardness”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)