Meanings
plural samenesses
- The quality of being the same; identity.
However strange it may sound, it always seemed to me […] that Adrian's laughter-filled friendship with Schildknapp had something to do with the sameness of their eye color
1997, Thomas Mann, chapter XX, in John E. Woods, transl., Doctor Faustus, New York: Vintage, published 1999, page 1821 more example
All of them agreed that the working-classes must be kept in their place; and all of them perceived that American Democracy did not imply any equality of wealth, but did demand a wholesome sameness of thought, dress, painting, morals, and vocabulary.
1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXXIV, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 391 - The state of being equivalent; equality.
Synonyms: egality, equality, equation, equivalence, evenness, par, parity
- A tiring lack of variety; monotony.
[…] in the time when day follows day in dull, unexpectant sameness, and trial is a dreary routine,—it is then that despair threatens […]
1860, George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, Book IV, Chapter II1 more example
O to sail to sea in a ship! / To leave this steady unendurable land, / To leave the tiresome sameness of the streets, the sidewalks and the houses, / To leave you O you solid motionless land, and entering a ship, / To sail and sail and sail!
1892, Walt Whitman, “A Song of Joys”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, page 148Synonyms: acedia, boredom, monotony, tediousness, tiresomeness, tedium, wearisomeness
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe state of being equivalent; equality.
nounA tiring lack of variety; monotony.
More synonyms by meaning
nounthe quality of wearisome constancy, routine, and lack of variety
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Czech stejnost
- stejnostquality of being the same
German Gleichheit, Gleichartigkeit
- Gleichheitquality of being the same
- Gleichartigkeitquality of being the same
- Gleichförmigkeita tiring lack of variety
Irish ionannas
- ionannasquality of being the same
Latin īdentitās
- īdentitāsquality of being the same
Romanian asemănare perfectă, identitate
- asemănare perfectăquality of being the same
- identitatequality of being the same
- monotoniequality of being the same
- uniformitatequality of being the same
Spanish mismidad
- mismidadquality of being the same
Cite this entry
sameness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sameness
“sameness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sameness. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sameness,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sameness.
Source: sameness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.