Meanings
plural cleannesses
- uncountableusuallyMoral purity; innocence.
Certes sayd the good man that is sothe / for he shalle be the best knyghte of the world and the fairest of alle the felauship / But wete yow wel there shall none atteyne it but by clennes that is pure confession
1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “vj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVISynonyms: guiltlessness, blamelessness, inculpability, innocence, innocency, guiltlessness, unguilt
- uncountableusuallyThe state of being physically clean and free of contamination or dirt; cleanliness.
1 more example
"But if so, why do you see so many young children on steam trains - apart, that is, from being dragged along by their fathers, or grandfathers? "I think they enjoy them because they are simply so different, so mechanical, so hot, oily and clanky, so dirty, so 'analogue' in a digital world. They are everything modern life tries to extirpate in favour of silence, smoothness and cleanness. Kids love that.
2022 February 23, Benedict le Vay, “Part of rail's past... present... and future”, in RAIL, number 951, page 56
Synonyms & antonyms
nounMoral purity; innocence.
More synonyms by meaning
nounthe state of being clean; without dirt or other impurities
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Old Englishclǣnnes
- Englishcleanness
From Old English clǣnnes, corresponding to clean + -ness.
More words from Old English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic نَظَافَة
- نَظَافَة (naẓāfa)state of being clean
Bulgarian чистота́
- чистота́ (čistotá)state of being clean
Catalan netedat
- netedatstate of being clean
Czech čistota, čistost
- čistotastate of being clean
- čistoststate of being clean
Finnish puhtaus, viattomuus
- puhtausmoral purity
- viattomuusmoral purity
- puhtausstate of being clean
French propreté
- propretéstate of being clean
German Sauberkeit, Reinlichkeit
- Sauberkeitstate of being clean
- Reinlichkeitstate of being clean
Hindi सफ़ाई
- सफ़ाई (safāī)state of being clean
Irish glaine, glaine
- glainemoral purity
- glainestate of being clean
- glaineachtstate of being clean
Latvian tīrība
- tīrībastate of being clean
Norwegian Bokmål renhet, reinhet
- renhetstate of being clean
- reinhetstate of being clean
Polish czystość, czystota
- czystośćstate of being clean
- czystotastate of being clean
Russian чистота́
- чистота́ (čistotá)state of being clean
Spanish limpieza
- limpiezastate of being clean
Ukrainian чистота́, чи́стість
- чистота́ (čystotá)state of being clean
- чи́стість (čýstistʹ)state of being clean
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with cleanness
Cite this entry
cleanness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cleanness
“cleanness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cleanness. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cleanness,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cleanness.
Source: cleanness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.