stiffness
noun
Forms stiffnesses
- noun Rigidity or a measure of rigidity.
- noun Inflexibility or a measure of inflexibility.
- noun Inelegance; a lack of relaxedness. “His stiffness hampered the conversation.”
- noun Muscular tension due to unaccustomed or excessive exercise or work; soreness.
Synonyms
awkwardness clumsiness gracelessness severity severeness harshness rigor rigour rigorousness rigourousness inclemency hardness
Etymology
From Middle English stiffenes, styffenesse, styfnesse; equivalent to stiff + -ness. Perhaps merging with Middle English stithnesse, stithnysse, from Old English stīþness (“stiffness”).
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “stiffness”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details