interiority

British  

/ ɪnˌtɪərɪˈɒrɪtɪ /

noun

1. the quality of being focused on one's inner life and identity

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Explanation

Interiority is a characteristic of being private, inward, or introspective. A writer can convey her characters' interiority by describing their innermost thoughts. The interiority of a person is their quality of being focused on their own inner nature or musings. Certain things are so personal that they carry their own sense of interiority — think of the emotion of love or the faith of a religious believer. You can also use this word to mean "inside" or "protected from the outside," like when you admire the interiority of an enclosed courtyard that's sheltered from the busy city around it.

Example Sentences

Unlike much contemporary literary fiction, which weighs heavily toward interiority and autofiction, Shriver’s novels are both idea- and plot-driven.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 31, 2026

That thread is exquisitely interlocked with a sensitive, sharp portrait of the interiority of someone searching for agency while in the throes of dementia.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 27, 2025

"What appealed to me more was the humanity behind it, the interpersonal, the interiority of the relationship," he says, that took him back to his childhood in Hyderabad.

From BBC • May 22, 2025

But Baitz extensively invests in writing to one layer of these women’s interiority without convincing us that there's more to them than their vindictiveness, prejudice or selfishness.

From Salon • Jan. 31, 2024

There is an irreducible antithesis between affective imagination, the characteristic of which is interiority, and visual imagination, basically objective.

From Essay on the Creative Imagination by Baron, Albert Heyem Nachmen