next-to-ness

alternative next-to-it-ness

1. informaluncountableThe state, quality, or condition of being next to someone or something; adjacentness; proximity.

   But in addition to grammatical next-to-ness, there is normal physical proximity.

   2005, Clara Mancini, Cinematic Hypertext: Investigating a New Paradigm, page 170

   2 more examples

   This adjoined-ness or next-to-ness is not only characteristic of symbolic art; it is what is specifically architectural.

   2000, William Maker, Hegel and Aesthetics, page 88

   Even as I feel her panicky worries because of the voices rising outside our room, I feel comforted because her slightly larger body is always in next-to-ness to mine.

   2011, Joanna Clapps Herman, The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian in America, page 108