properness

P3R1O1P3E1R1N1E1S1S1
UK/ˈpɹɒ.pə.nəs/US/ˈpɹɒ.pɚ.nəs/

noun

The state or condition of being proper; propriety.

Opposite
Scrabble 14

Meanings

nounproperness (usually uncountable, plural propernesses)

plural propernesses

  1. uncountableusuallyThe state or condition of being proper; propriety.

    The kind of women who put papers on shelves and had little towels like that instinctively distrusted and disliked Mack and the boys. Such women knew that they were the worst threats to a home, for they offered ease and thought and companionship as opposed to neatness, order, and properness.

    1945, John Steinbeck, Cannery Row
  2. uncountableusuallymathematicsThe state or condition of being proper (of a proper fraction, proper subset, etc.).
  3. obsoleteuncountableusuallyExcellence, quality.

    Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits […] betook himself to his beads, and by those means got more honour than ever he should have done with the use of his limbs and properness of person […]

    1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 3, member 2

Synonyms & antonyms

nouncorrect or appropriate behavior

Opposite

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*per-der.?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*pér
  3. Proto-Indo-European*pró
  4. Proto-Indo-European*pro-
  5. Proto-Italic*pro-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*preyH-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*priHós
  8. Proto-Italic*prijos
  9. Proto-Italic*proprijos
  10. Latinpropriu
  11. Anglo-Normanpropre
  12. Middle Englishpropre
  13. Englishproper
  14. Englishproperness

From proper + -ness.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

properness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/properness

MLA

“properness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/properness. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “properness,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/properness.

Source: properness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.