stiffness
Americannoun
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stiffnesses
plural
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the state or condition of being rigid or firm.
The bicycle’s frame is well balanced, with excellent stiffness throughout.
Conventional wisdom has been that longer knife blades need more carbon for stiffness.
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the state or condition of being unable to move easily.
Proper stretching will help you avoid joint stiffness and muscle tension after a workout.
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lack of ease or grace.
The teacher offers advice on how to get over the stiffness or outright paralysis that can creep in when people make writing into a “big deal.”
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the state or condition of being rigidly formal.
There was a stiffness to the encounter, but the ambassador was not unfriendly.
If representatives meet only under official circumstances, a degree of stiffness is introduced which does not allow people to exchange ideas as freely.
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the state or condition of being excessive, difficult, or severe.
The council expressed concern about the stiffness of the fines and sentences for such minor infractions.
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(of soil) the state or condition of being compact; density.
A variety of sediment samples are needed in order to recover different types of sediment, mainly based on their stiffness.
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Etymology
Origin of stiffness
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
They can include muscle and joint aches, stiffness and swelling, reduced strength and pins and needles.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
Deisseroth offered another example with Parkinson's disease, a progressive brain disorder that can cause shaking, stiffness and difficulty controlling movement.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
The disease is marked by symptoms including tremor, stiffness, slow movement, gait and balance problems.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
This difference in stiffness could be important because harder implants can trigger inflammatory responses when they remain in the brain for long periods.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 21, 2026
The stiffness in Mazen’s face dissolves, and the light of an old memory flares in his eyes.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
Increasingly it was more difficult to fight the aches and stiffnesses which tried to keep her in bed in the morning—not that they ever succeeded.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
And I felt very sorry for Carette, and did not wonder so much now at the little stiffnesses of manner I had noticed in her the last time we met.
From Carette of Sark by John Oxenham
The youthful works of genius are generally the best, their very crudities and stiffnesses adorable.
From The Altar Fire by Arthur Christopher Benson
And the muslins and blue ribbons will be wonderful filmy creations, as different from the Early Victorian stiffnesses as anything you can possibly imagine.
From Betty Trevor by Victor Prout
He seems to have loved the very stiffnesses of the form in which he worked.
From Euripedes and His Age by Gilbert Murray
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