fierceness

[feers-nis]

noun

1. a menacingly wild, savage, or hostile quality or character.

   In spite of the fierceness of the enemy barrage, the line was made secure.

   After many threats, he rushed at me with the fierceness of a wolf.

2. violent force, intensity, etc..

   Already the sudden storm is passing, and its fierceness is abating.

3. furious eagerness or intensity of emotion, etc..

   As I read her novel my heart was moved by the fierceness of her love for humanity.

4. the quality of being extremely bad or severe.

   Only by the fifth day, when the fierceness of the headache started to decrease, was she able to move normally again.

Other Word Forms

• overfierceness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of fierceness¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; fierce ( def. ) + -ness ( def. )

Example Sentences

It is a fierceness that surfaces most prominently when the conversation turns to the business of music, her family’s legacy and her recent marriage to young Mexican singer-songwriter Christian Nodal.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But I and millions of Americans do remember them for fierceness in their respective battlegrounds, a steeliness any sailor should aspire to.

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“He mentioned that he liked the idea of Sinatra having a real humanity to her,” says Nicholson, who in flashbacks is soft and in the story’s present all brittle, escalating fierceness.

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He also opened a youth center and, for the next decade, dedicated himself to helping others, losing all of the fierceness he’d adopted as a fighter.

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The fierceness of the defence obviously stayed with Goldie - he later saw a poodle and hastily flew away.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• wildness www.thesaurus.com