loveliness
English
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
loveliness (countable and uncountable, plural lovelinesses)
- (uncountable) The property of being lovely, of attractiveness, beauty, appearing to be lovable.
- 1818, John Keats, “Book I”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] [T. Miller] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 3, lines 1–5:
- A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness; but still will keep / A bower quiet for us, and a sleep / Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
- (countable) The result of being lovely.
- (zoology, collective) A group of ladybirds.
- 2016, David Mark, Dead Pretty, Hachette UK, page 10
- 'A loveliness of ladybirds,' whispers Roisin to her sleeping child, and looks at her husband proudly. He grins back. 'Aye, the plague of last summer. Couldn't pick up a glass of lemonade without finding a hundred ladybirds using it as a bubble-bath.'
- 2018, Natalie Rompella, The World Never Sleeps, Tilbury House, p18
- A loveliness of ladybugs is enjoying lunch - little aphids that pepper a crop of soybeans.
- 2019, Jayne Fresina, A Loveliness of Ladybirds, Twisted-E Publishing LLC, page 71
- Sparks of sunlight caught on a loveliness of ladybirds that had floated into the waiting room through an open door.
- 2016, David Mark, Dead Pretty, Hachette UK, page 10