timidity
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of timidity
First recorded in 1510–20; from Latin timiditās, equivalent to timid(us) + -i- connecting vowel + -tās noun suffix; see timid ( def. ), -i- ( def. ), -ty 2 ( def. )
Explanation
Do you suffer from timidity? If so, you probably feel uneasy in new places and situations. You might fear having to make decisions. But as you get more comfortable, your timidity will go away. The noun timidity is related to the Latin word timidus, from timere, meaning “to fear.” In fact, fear is often a cause of timidity — fear of the unknown, fear of not knowing what to do. For example, you might experience timidity in visiting a country for the first time because you aren't sure of the local customs or you don't speak the language well. Because you are afraid of embarrassing yourself, you hold back.
Vocabulary lists containing timidity
The Devil's Arithmetic
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Litotes from Top AP English Exam Novels
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"Growing Up Asian in America"
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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.
See Examples For:
Jamie Smith characterised England's timidity, playing not shot to be bowled by one Jamieson got to dart back.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
That linguistic timidity —our inability to name what’s happening — is itself a form of complicity, and the result of a combination of fear and fecklessness.
From Salon ● Nov. 13, 2025
But this is not the time for judicial timidity.
From Slate ● Feb. 13, 2025
Fear, panic and timidity rule the day, as they generally do.
From New York Times ● May 16, 2024
“I’m afraid they mightn’t like it,” began Laurie, with unusual timidity in such matters.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
What Are We to Do?, a study of the "rise and fall" of the British labor movement, is an urbane, inquisitional chronicle of missed opportunities, compromises, retreats, timidities, defeats.
From Time Magazine Archive
But few will fail to join in the familiar battlecry of her hedonism: "Away with hypocrisies, timidities, doubts!"
From Time Magazine Archive
Only a combination of great disasters, great stupidities, great timidities could ever allow war to come so close to U.S. shores.
From Time Magazine Archive
But it takes a typically Victorian literary license to account for the difference between the groping timidities of Albert Grope and the caustic, scrupulous and sometimes slightly patronizing style of his more mature meditations.
From Time Magazine Archive
She was no fragile ornament of drawing-rooms; she was the woman who strode like a goddess and for whom timidities had no existence.
From The Portal of Dreams by Buck, Charles Neville
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.
