-ness

See also: ness and Ness

English

Alternative forms

• -nesse (obsolete)
• ⠰⠎ (Braille)

Etymology

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.

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

1. 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

   ‎dark + ‎-ness → ‎darkness

   ‎kind + ‎-ness → ‎kindness

   ‎one + ‎-ness → ‎oneness

2. 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
• -ia
• -ibility
• -icity
• -ism
• -itas
• -itia
• -itude
• -ity
• -osity
• -ship
• -th

 

Derived terms

English terms suffixed with -ness

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
• 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: -ות f
• Hindi: -ई f (-ī)
• Hungarian: -ság (hu)/-ség (hu)
• 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: -het (no), -skap (no)
• Old English: -nes
• Old Norse: -naðr, -skapr
• Old Saxon: -nessi
• Ottoman Turkish: ـلق (-lık), ـلك (-lik)
• Polish: -ość (pl), -stwo (pl)
• 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 f
• Spanish: -idad (es)
• Swahili: u-
• Swedish: -het (sv), -skap (sv)
• Tagalog: ka- -an (tl)
• Telugu: -తనము (-tanamu)
• Thai: ความ (th) (kwaam)
• Turkish: -lık (tr), -lik (tr), -luk (tr), -lük (tr)
• Ukrainian: -ість f (-istʹ), -ство (-stvo)
• Vietnamese: sự (vi), nỗi (vi), niềm (vi)
• Welsh: -rwydd (cy)
• West Frisian: -ens, -heid, -skip
• Yiddish: ־ניש n (-nish), ־קייט (-keyt), ־הייט (-heyt)
• Zazaki: -ey, -iye, -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

Declension of -ness (strong ō-stem)

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	-ness	-nessa, -nesse
accusative	-nesse	-nessa, -nesse
genitive	-nesse	-nessa
dative	-nesse	-nessum

References

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “-ness”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[1], 2nd 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.