Word.ws English Dictionary

chairness

Syllables: chair·ness/ˈt͡ʃɛənəs/US/ˈt͡ʃɛɹnəs/

chairness noun: the essence of what it means to be a chair; the qualities that make a chair what it is.

chairness: the essence of what it means to be a chair; the qualities that make a chair what it is
Image: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

chairness (uncountable)

  1. The essence of what it means to be a chair; the qualities that make a chair what it is.
    • There was, according to him [an artificial monster created by a Swedish scientist], a 'goodness' that made things good, an 'evil principle' that made them bad, [...] and a 'chairness' or 'boxness' that made things chairs and boxes.1870 December 29, “A New Adam in Sweden”, in Daily Telegraph, Harrisburg, PA, page 1
    • Similarly when we call triangularity or chairness an idea or notion or concept, we do not mean to deny that these natures are really manifested in particulars; we are only saying that their reality, like that of the particulars, presupposes a thinking subject.1907, H. A. Prichard, “A Criticism of the Psychologists' Treatment of Knowledge”, in Mind: A Quarterly Review of Psychology and Philosophy, volume 16, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →OCLC, page 34

Examples of chairness in a sentence

  • "It's about forms and negative space—she's taken the chairness away from the chair and left it purely object."2003, Ann Packer, chapter 18, in The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Contemporaries, →ISBN, page 177:
  • For me, chairness is nonvisual; it's the feel of a seat connected to four legs and a backrest.2011, Thad Nodine, chapter 3, in Touch and Go: A Novel, [Lakewood, Colo.]: Unbridled Books, →ISBN, page 39:
  • When you look at a chair, you are aware of its shape from a particular point of view, but defenders of this objection insist that you are also aware of its chairness.2012, Jesse J. Prinz, “Where is Consciousness? The Intermediate Level”, in The Conscious Brain: How Attention Engenders Experience...

Origin of chairness

From chair + -ness.

Questions about chairness

What does chairness mean?
Chairness means the essence of what it means to be a chair; the qualities that make a chair what it is.
How do you use chairness in a sentence?
"It's about forms and negative space—she's taken the chairness away from the chair and left it purely object."
What part of speech is chairness?
Chairness is a noun.
How do you pronounce chairness?
Chairness is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃɛənəs/ (UK).

Words near chairness in the dictionary

  1. chairmanship
  2. chairmanships
  3. chairmat
  4. chairmats
  5. chairmen
  6. chairness
  7. chairobics
  8. chairoplane
  9. chairoplanes
  10. chairpeople
  11. chairperson

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chairness (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-chairness.wav.

Cite this entry: “chairness.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chairness. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.