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:
It occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy joint tissue, causing pain, swelling, stiffness, and progressive damage.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026
But by increasing blood flow, reducing muscle stiffness and increasing serotonin, a hard massage can take on “some components of travel fatigue,” Katzenback said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
His lawsuit alleged that this impacted upon a ski holiday, as well as his exercise regime as "attempts at strenuous athletic activity would cause significant exacerbations of pain and stiffness".
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
The disease gradually breaks down cartilage in the joints, causing pain, stiffness, and swelling.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 12, 2026
I inched down the hall, my legs eventually returning to normal as the stiffness worked itself out.
From "All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds
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
The youthful works of genius are generally the best, their very crudities and stiffnesses adorable.
From The Altar Fire by Arthur Christopher Benson
He seems to have loved the very stiffnesses of the form in which he worked.
From Euripedes and His Age by Gilbert Murray
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
It blows fogs, foul vapours, joint- stiffnesses, agues, pestilences, over us here,—yes, here!
From The Adventures of Harry Richmond — Volume 4 by George Meredith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
