loveliness

Noun

loveliness (countable and uncountable, plural lovelinesses)

1. (uncountable) The property of being lovely, of attractiveness, beauty, appearing to be lovable.
   • A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness; but still will keep / A bower quiet for us, and a sleep / Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.1818, John Keats, “Book I”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 3, lines 1–5
   • Then, seated in her barbaric chair above them all, with myself at her feet, was the veiled white woman, whose loveliness and awesome power seemed to visibly shine about her like a halo, or rather like the glow from some unseen light.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
2. (countable) The result of being lovely.
3. (collective) A group of ladybirds.
   • 'A loveliness of ladybirds,' whispers Roisin to her sleeping child, and looks at her husband proudly. He grins back. 'Aye, the plague of last summer. Couldn't pick up a glass of lemonade without finding a hundred ladybirds using it as a bubble-bath.'2016, David Mark, Dead Pretty, Hachette UK, page 10
   • A loveliness of ladybugs is enjoying lunch - little aphids that pepper a crop of soybeans.2018, Natalie Rompella, The World Never Sleeps, Tilbury House, p18