Meanings
plural friendlinesses
- uncountableusuallyThe quality of being friendly.
To foreigners we often seem guileless and overchatty, an impression which is dispersed when they find that much of our friendliness is just the ebullition of the moment and does not carry with it any permanence of devotion.
1923 February 11, Mme. X. [pseudonym], “News of Chicago Society: Now That War’s Over, On with Full Dress, Men”, in The Chicago Sunday Tribune, final edition, volume LXXXII, number 6, Chicago, Ill., →ISSN, →OCLC, part 7, page 5, columns 6–71 more example
Finding us easy in our ways, he […] told me a cock-and-bull story with the moral of another five francs for the narrator. The thing was palpably absurd; but I paid up, and at once dropped all friendliness of manner, and kept him in his place as an inferior with freezing British dignity. He saw in a moment that he had gone too far, and killed a willing horse; his face fell; I am sure he would have refunded if he could only have thought of a decent pretext.
1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Down the Oise: To Moy”, in An Inland Voyage, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC, page 141Synonyms: affability, amicability, bonhomie, geniality, pleasantness, amity, affability, amiability · Antonyms: hostility, unfriendliness
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe quality of being friendly.
More synonyms by meaning
nouna feeling of liking for another person; enjoyment in their company
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishfreendlynesse, frendlynes
- Englishfriendliness
From Middle English freendlynesse, frendlynes, equivalent to friendly + -ness.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 友好, 親切 /亲切
- 友好 (yǒuhǎo)the quality of being friendly
- 親切 /亲切 (qīnqiè)the quality of being friendly
Danish venlighed
- venlighedthe quality of being friendly
Dutch vriendelijkheid
- vriendelijkheidthe quality of being friendly
Finnish ystävällisyys
- ystävällisyysthe quality of being friendly
French gentillesse, cordialité
- gentillessethe quality of being friendly
- cordialitéthe quality of being friendly
German Freundlichkeit
- Freundlichkeitthe quality of being friendly
Greek φιλικότητα
- φιλικότητα (filikótita)the quality of being friendly
Hindi मित्रत्व
- मित्रत्व (mitratva)the quality of being friendly
Hungarian barátságosság
- barátságosságthe quality of being friendly
Icelandic vingjarnleiki
- vingjarnleikithe quality of being friendly
Irish cairdiúlacht
- cairdiúlachtthe quality of being friendly
Japanese 友好, 親切
- 友好 (yūkō)the quality of being friendly
- 親切 (shinsetsu)the quality of being friendly
Korean 우호, 우정
- 우호 (uho)the quality of being friendly
- 우정 (ujeong)the quality of being friendly
Norwegian Bokmål vennlighet
- vennlighetthe quality of being friendly
Portuguese cordialidade, amizade
- cordialidadethe quality of being friendly
- amizadethe quality of being friendly
Romanian amabilitate, prietenie
- amabilitatethe quality of being friendly
- prieteniethe quality of being friendly
- atitudine prietenoasăthe quality of being friendly
Russian дружелю́бие
- дружелю́бие (druželjúbije)the quality of being friendly
Scottish Gaelic càirdeas
- càirdeasthe quality of being friendly
Spanish amigabilidad
- amigabilidadthe quality of being friendly
Welsh cyfeillgarwch
- cyfeillgarwchthe quality of being friendly
Cite this entry
friendliness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/friendliness
“friendliness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/friendliness. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “friendliness,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/friendliness.
Source: friendliness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.