aloofness
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of aloofness
Explanation
Aloofness is a noun meaning a state of being distant, remote, or withdrawn. Someone showing aloofness might be shy, or just really doesn't want to be around people. Aloofness is from the adjective aloof — originally a nautical term. The lee side of a ship was the sheltered side, but in a storm, if the wind was blowing your ship toward shore, you wanted to steer toward the loof (or weather side) of the ship, so that you weren't forced into the shore. Thus literally trying to keep your distance from shore by steering a loof, which gave rise to the more figurative meaning of being distant.
Vocabulary lists containing aloofness
The Outsiders
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A Thousand Splendid Suns
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Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize in Literature
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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.
The solution is dazzling: The two buildings seem barely to touch shoulders, and yet behind this show of aloofness their interior spaces flow freely together at every level.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026
They won us over with their mild pomposity and aloofness, whereas Rapaport’s annoyance wreaks collateral damage like a chronically unbathed person’s odor assails bystanders.
From Salon • Jan. 15, 2026
Another parent said the school showed an "aloofness and detachment" when dealing with the harm done to his daughter.
From BBC • May 12, 2025
The set designer Adam Rigg’s storybook framework, with rolling hills and broad-leaved plants that look like cardboard cutouts, achieves grandeur without aloofness.
From New York Times • Apr. 24, 2024
That was how I escaped my father’s aloofness, in my dead mother’s books.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
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.
