dampness

Noun

dampness (usually uncountable, plural dampnesses)

1. (usually) Moderate humidity; moisture; moistness; the state or quality of being damp.
   • With 3,600 h.p. underfoot, acceleration was reasonably brisk, but the flickering wheel-slip indicator light showed the prudence of not putting full power through the traction motors while there were traces of early-morning dampness on the rails.1960 August, R. K. Evans, “Railway Modernisation in Spain”, in Trains Illustrated, page 494
   • They hadn't reckoned with the attendant personality disorders, which the coldness, the darkness, the dampness, the crampedness and the loneliness were doing nothing to decrease.1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 136
2. (usually) The degree to which something is damp or moist.
   • The dampness in the writing paper caused the ink to spread and smudge.