NEARNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does nearness mean? 

• NEARNESS (noun)
  The noun NEARNESS has 1 sense:

1. the spatial property resulting from a relatively small distance

  Familiarity information: NEARNESS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NEARNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The spatial property resulting from a relatively small distance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

closeness; nearness

Context example:

the sudden closeness of the dock sent him into action

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

distance (the property created by the space between two objects or points)

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

propinquity; proximity (the property of being close together)

adjacency; contiguity; contiguousness (the attribute of being so near as to be touching)

Antonym:

farness (the property of being remote)

Derivation:

near (not far distant in time or space or degree or circumstances)

 Context examples 

The quality of nearness to the truth or the true value.

(Accuracy, NCI Thesaurus)

Lip-lip, excited by the chase and by the persistent nearness of his victim, forgot caution and locality.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

In the immediate nearness of the gold, all else had been forgotten: his promise and the doctor's warning were both things of the past, and I could not doubt that he hoped to seize upon the treasure, find and board the HISPANIOLA under cover of night, cut every honest throat about that island, and sail away as he had at first intended, laden with crimes and riches.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

A well-disposed young woman, who did not marry for love, was in general but the more attached to her own family; and the nearness of Sotherton to Mansfield must naturally hold out the greatest temptation, and would, in all probability, be a continual supply of the most amiable and innocent enjoyments.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The atmosphere of the house, in such contrast with that in which he lived, and the mere nearness to her, sent him forth each time with a firmer grip on his resolve to climb the heights.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Within doors there was Lady Catherine, books, and a billiard-table, but gentlemen cannot always be within doors; and in the nearness of the Parsonage, or the pleasantness of the walk to it, or of the people who lived in it, the two cousins found a temptation from this period of walking thither almost every day.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)