conventionality
Americannoun
-
conventionalities
plural
-
conventional quality or character.
-
adherence to convention.
-
a conventional practice, principle, form, etc.
-
conventionalities, conventional rules of behavior.
noun
-
the quality or characteristic of being conventional, esp in behaviour, thinking, etc
-
(often plural) something conventional, esp a normal or accepted rule of behaviour; propriety
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of conventionality
First recorded in 1825–35; conventional + -ity
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:
But when intellectuals refuse to render moral judgments, when they sink into safe conventionality, that in itself is a kind of judgment.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2025
The cast is strong enough to sell us on the movie’s idea of love, even when it bends conventionality into a balloon animal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2025
The last thing her fans might have expected from a Britney Spears musical is dutiful conventionality.
From New York Times ● Jun. 22, 2023
Or maybe it has more to do with Lana’s use of convention to smash conventionality.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 27, 2023
Being Goth wipes away any expectation of conventionality, so Molly finds she’s free to be weird in lots of ways at once.
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
Because it’s a novel by Dag Solstad, none of these conventionalities are entered into.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 15, 2018
A fawning Harvard Business Review case study published in 2017 cast conventionalities like “paying full-time salaries and being focused on traditional employment” as “substantial disadvantages.”
From Slate ● Mar. 1, 2018
This is writing of a high order, and Berlinski demonstrates a continuous awareness of those heights—his conventionalities are superior to many writers’ originalities.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 21, 2016
In addition, their schemes are often censored by stodgy directors who insist on conventionalities.
From Time Magazine Archive
Perhaps I had too rashly over-leaped conventionalities; and he, like St. John, saw impropriety in my inconsiderateness.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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.
