slowness
Americannoun
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the slow rate of movement of something; lack of speed or rapidity.
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lack of intelligence; poor ability to perceive, understand, realize, etc.; dullness.
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lack of activity or energy; the quality of not being busy; slackness.
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the quality of being unexciting or uninteresting; boring or draggy quality.
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the quality of being gradual, deliberate, or unhurried.
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the fact or state of falling behind the standard time, as of a clock.
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 company’s revised guidance was legitimately terrible, indicating that the slowness of the rollout surprised them as well, and will drag on.
From Barron's • May 4, 2026
“Henry Ford Hospital” from 1932 offers an unsparing look at the artist following a miscarriage, in which blood vessels fan out like ribbons and objects like snails hint at the slowness of her recovery.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 19, 2026
“There’s a real slowness in food and ceramics,” she says.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 13, 2026
It’s a slowness she’d never had to confront, in a language she doesn’t speak.
From Slate • Feb. 1, 2026
It is tempting to think of this as some kind of giant continent-sized car crash, but of course it happened with imperceptible slowness.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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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.