awfulness

Noun

awfulness (usually uncountable, plural awfulnesses)

1. (usually) The state or quality of being awful.
   • Out came old Teenie, buzzing mad as a whole nest of wasps. Muttered awfulnesses came from her great padded bonnet.1942, Emily Carr, “Characters”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC
   • "Why is the awfulness of families such a popular reason for starting another?"1961, Peter De Vries, chapter 3, in The Blood of the Lamb, Penguin, published 1982, page 36
2. (usually) The quality of striking with awe, or with reverence
   • […] the knocking at the gate, which succeeds to the murder of Duncan, produced to my feelings an effect for which I could never account: the effect was—that it reflected back upon the murder a peculiar awfulness and a depth of solemnity […]1823, Thomas de Quincey, “On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth”, in Robert Morrison, editor, On Murder, Oxford World's Classics, published 2006, page 3
   • It is only when actually gazing on an active volcano that one can fully realize its awfulness and grandeur. Whence comes that inexhaustible fire whose dense and sulphurous smoke forever issues from this bare and desolate peak?1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 450

   Synonyms:

   dreadfulness, solemnity

3. (usually) The state of being struck with awe; a spirit of solemnity; profound reverence.