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hardness

hard·ness

UK/ˈhɑːdnəs/ US/ˈhɑɹdnəs/ rare

noun

1.

the property of being rigid and resistant to pressure; not easily scratched; measured on Mohs scale

Antonyms
2.
3.

the quality of being difficult to do

  • “he assigned a series of problems of increasing hardness”
  • “the ruggedness of his exams caused half the class to fail”
4.

excessive sternness

  • “severity of character”
  • “the harshness of his punishment was inhuman”
  • “the rigors of boot camp”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English hardness, hardnesse, from Old English heardnes, from heard + -nes, equivalent to hard + -ness.

Phrases

  • hardness of hearing
  • Knoop hardness
  • total hardness
  • Vickers hardness
  • water hardness

Related words

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.