starkness

English

Etymology

From Middle English starknes, starkenes, starkenesse, equivalent to stark +‎ -ness.

Noun

starkness (countable and uncountable, plural starknesses)

1. (uncountable) The state or quality of being stark.
   • 2009, Chika Unigwe, On Black Sisters’ Street, Vintage (2010), page 226:

     In the morning the framed photograph of the two of them, hanging on the sitting-room wall, was gone. The patch of wall where it had been hanging a hurtful rectangle of dusty starkness.

2. (countable) The result or product of being stark.