INWARDNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does inwardness mean? 

• INWARDNESS (noun)
  The noun INWARDNESS has 4 senses:

1. the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience

2. preoccupation especially with one's attitudes and ethical or ideological values

3. the quality or state of being inward or internal

4. preoccupation with what concerns human inner nature (especially ethical or ideological values)

  Familiarity information: INWARDNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INWARDNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

center; centre; core; essence; gist; heart; heart and soul; inwardness; kernel; marrow; meat; nitty-gritty; nub; pith; substance; sum

Context example:

the nub of the story

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

cognitive content; content; mental object (the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned)

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

bare bones ((plural) the most basic facts or elements)

hypostasis ((metaphysics) essential nature or underlying reality)

haecceity; quiddity (the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other)

quintessence (the purest and most concentrated essence of something)

stuff (a critically important or characteristic component)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Preoccupation especially with one's attitudes and ethical or ideological values

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

inwardness is what an Englishman quite simply has, painlessly, as a birthright

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

cognitive state; state of mind (the state of a person's cognitive processes)

Antonym:

outwardness (concern with outward things or material objects as opposed to the mind and spirit)

Derivation:

inward (relating to or existing in the mind or thoughts)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The quality or state of being inward or internal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

the inwardness of the body's organs

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

position; spatial relation (the spatial property of a place where or way in which something is situated)

Antonym:

outwardness (the quality or state of being outside or directed toward or relating to the outside or exterior)

Derivation:

inward (directed or moving inward or toward a center)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Preoccupation with what concerns human inner nature (especially ethical or ideological values)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

internality; inwardness

Context example:

Socrates' inwardness, integrity, and inquisitiveness

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

introversion ((psychology) an introverted disposition; concern with one's own thoughts and feelings)

Attribute:

inward (relating to or existing in the mind or thoughts)

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

otherworldliness; spiritism; spiritualism; spirituality (concern with things of the spirit)

Antonym:

outwardness (a concern with or responsiveness to outward things (especially material objects as opposed to ideal concepts))

Derivation:

inward (relating to or existing in the mind or thoughts)