Word.ws English Dictionary

goodnesse

goodnesse is the obsolete spelling of goodness.

Meaning of goodness

Noun

goodness (countable and uncountable, plural goodnesses)

  1. (uncountable) The state or characteristic of being good.
    • There is ſome ſoule of goodneſſe in things euill, / VVould men obſeruingly 'diſtill it out.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  2. (countable) The good, nutritional, healthy part or content of something.
  3. (euphemistic, uncountable) God.
    • Thank goodness that the war is over!
  4. The moral qualities which constitute Christian excellence; moral virtue.
    • But the fruit of the ſpirit is loue, ioy, peace, long ſuffering, gentleneſſe, goodneſſe, faith, / Meekeneſſe, temperance: againſt ſuch there is no law.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Galatians 5:22–23, column 2

Forms of goodnesse

pluralgoodnesses

Questions about goodnesse

What is goodnesse the obsolete spelling of?
Goodnesse is the obsolete spelling of goodness.

Words near goodnesse in the dictionary

  1. goodness
  2. goodness gracious
  3. goodness gracious me
  4. goodness knows
  5. goodness me
  6. goodnesse
  7. goodnesses
  8. Goodnestone
  9. goodnight
  10. goodnight Irene
  11. goodnight nurse

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: goodnesse (page history and authors); goodness (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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Cite this entry: “goodnesse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/goodnesse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.