watchingness

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noun

The quality of watching; vigilant attention.

Scrabble 21
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Meanings

nounwatchingness (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe quality of watching; vigilant attention.

    Beulah's mother came over with her silent watchingness and leaned over her pale daughter.

    2016, Alexandra Glynn, Escaped from the Nations, page 15
    1 more example

    Is it not then, moreover, preposterous to affirm that the state of watchingness, inquietude, struggle, knowing that the enemy is ever in ambush for the soul,—a state in which the Christian is ceaselessly kept—is one that begets pride, when its natural consequence cannot but be humility?

    a. 1667, Jeremy Taylor, The Anglican Church Vindicated in Answer to M. D'Aubigné's Discourse Entitled: “Geneva and Oxford.”, J. Ollivier, published 1844

Origin

From watching + -ness.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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