Meanings
plural narrownesses
- uncountableThe state of being narrow.
“You will understand me when I say that it was a deadly life for a girl brought up as I had been. The narrowness, the deadly monotony of it, almost drove me mad.”
1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 1411 more example
presently, then, I felt the stiff insertion between the yielding, divided lips of the wound, now open for life; where the narrowness no longer put me to intolerable pain, and afforded my lover no more difficulty than what heighten'd his pleasure, in the strict embrace of that tender, warm sheath, round the instrument it was so delicately adjusted to
Fanny Hill
1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC - countableA constriction; a narrow passage or place; an instance or aspect of being narrow, or having a limited scope or extent.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounan inclination to criticize opposing opinions or shocking behavior
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishnarwenesse
- Englishnarrowness
From Middle English narwenesse; equivalent to narrow + -ness.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek στενότης
- στενότης (stenótēs)state of being narrow
Arabic ضَيْق
- ضَيْق (ḍayq)state of being narrow
Catalan estretor
- estretorstate of being narrow
Esperanto mallarĝeco
- mallarĝecostate of being narrow
Finnish kapeus, ahtaus
- kapeusstate of being narrow
- ahtausstate of being narrow
- täpäryysstate of being narrow
French étroitesse
- étroitessestate of being narrow
German Enge, Beschränktheit
- Engestate of being narrow
- Beschränktheitstate of being narrow
Greek στενότητα
- στενότητα (stenótita)state of being narrow
Japanese 狭さ, 狭小
- 狭さ (semasa)state of being narrow
- 狭小 (kyōshō)state of being narrow
- 狭窄 (kyōsaku)state of being narrow
- 狭隘 (kyōai)state of being narrow
Latin angustia
- angustiastate of being narrow
Portuguese estreiteza
- estreitezastate of being narrow
Russian у́зость
- у́зость (úzostʹ)state of being narrow
Spanish estrechez
- estrechezstate of being narrow
Turkish darlık
- darlıkstate of being narrow
Cite this entry
narrowness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/narrowness
“narrowness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/narrowness. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “narrowness,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/narrowness.
Source: narrowness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.