English Dictionary

FOULNESS

Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

IPA (US): 

 Dictionary entry overview: What does foulness mean? 

FOULNESS (noun)
  The noun FOULNESS has 4 senses:

1. disgusting wickedness and immoralityplay

2. a state characterized by foul or disgusting dirt and refuseplay

3. (of weather) the badness of the weatherplay

4. the attribute of having a strong offensive smellplay

  Familiarity information: FOULNESS used as a noun is uncommon.


 Dictionary entry details 


FOULNESS (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Disgusting wickedness and immorality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

mouths which speak such foulness must be cleansed

Hypernyms ("foulness" is a kind of...):

dark; darkness; wickedness (absence of moral or spiritual values)

Derivation:

foul (violating accepted standards or rules)


Sense 2

Meaning:

A state characterized by foul or disgusting dirt and refuse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

filth; filthiness; foulness; nastiness

Hypernyms ("foulness" is a kind of...):

unsanitariness (a state that is not conducive to health)

Derivation:

foul (disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter)


Sense 3

Meaning:

(of weather) the badness of the weather

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

foulness; raininess

Context example:

they were wearied with the foulness of the weather

Hypernyms ("foulness" is a kind of...):

badness; severeness; severity (used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather)


Sense 4

Meaning:

The attribute of having a strong offensive smell

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

fetidness; foulness; malodorousness; rankness; stinkiness

Hypernyms ("foulness" is a kind of...):

aroma; odor; odour; olfactory property; scent; smell (any property detected by the olfactory system)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "foulness"):

B.O.; body odor; body odour (malodorousness resulting from a failure to bathe)

Derivation:

foul (offensively malodorous)


 Context examples 


There have been from the loins of this very one great men and good women, and their graves make sacred the earth where alone this foulness can dwell.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But he knew life, its foulness as well as its fairness, its greatness in spite of the slime that infested it, and by God he was going to have his say on it to the world.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"While the cat is away, the mice will play." (English proverb)

"The nose didn't smell the rotting head." (Bhutanese proverb)

"If you speak the word it shall own you, and if you don't you shall own it." (Arabic proverb)

"He who protects himself from cold also wards off heat." (Corsican proverb)



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