comeliness

American  

[kuhm-lee-nis] / ˈkʌm li nɪs /

noun

1. the quality of being attractive or pleasing in appearance.

   Her friend, a middle-aged woman, had retained much of her youthful comeliness.

   In spite of their perceived lack of comeliness, ridgebacks are well known for their ability to hunt and guard.

2. the quality of being seemly or proper in behavior.

   The word in Arabic carries the meanings of virtue, beauty, goodness, comeliness, and “doing what is beautiful” all at once.

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Etymology

Origin of comeliness

comely ( def. ) + -ness ( def. )

Example Sentences

As an adult, he is played by Jacob Elordi, an excellent match for Ms. Robbie, both in comeliness and star power.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 11, 2026

The goal was to enable Disney to avoid the honky-tonk character of development around Disneyland in Anaheim, and instead keep the Florida property in perfectly coiffed white-bread comeliness.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 23, 2023

Most dung fungi are *not* known for their, er, comeliness.

From Scientific American • Sep. 5, 2012

Some images approximate the saccharine comeliness of academic painting, as in Félix-Jacques Antoine Moulin’s image of a pair of slim young women whose poses coyly evoke Greek Classicism.

From New York Times • Mar. 29, 2012

A young man may be very fastidious, but neck-ribbons awry and brown hair in rich disorder do not entirely close his eyes to a maiden's comeliness.

From The King's Stratagem and Other Stories by Weyman, Stanley John