Meanings
plural irreticences
- countableuncountableUnreservedness; the property of being irreticent.
Quite unmoved these travellers sit reading—Thomas Hardy, perhaps—bridging abysses, preserving continuity, a little contemptuous of the excitement which is moving those who feel themselves liberated from one civilization, launched upon another to such odd gestures, such strange irreticences.
1923 June 6, “To Spain”, in The New Republic, volume 35, page 39
Origin
From ir- + reticence, apparently coined by Virginia Woolf in Mrs. Dalloway.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
irreticence. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/irreticence
“irreticence.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/irreticence. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “irreticence,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/irreticence.
Source: irreticence on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.