Word.ws English Dictionary

netherness

netherness noun: the state or quality of being nether or beneath; lowness; inferiority.

Noun

netherness (uncountable)

  1. The state or quality of being nether or beneath; lowness; inferiority.
    • Riley's sardony preserves the duplicity, the netherness, the not-me of the narcissistic identification.2003, Romana Huk, Assembling alternatives
  2. Deepness; depth; abyss.
    • It was as if the vines and roots of those withered giants would imminently wrap themselves around the old fraternity and drag it into the dark netherness that secret old, places have always held.2007, Eric Arvin, Slight Details & Random Events
    • The memory of the swirling netherness sent a chill down her spine. She shook her head. “But—” The waterfire had been both more and less than she had expected.2007, Eilis Flynn, The Sleeper Awakes

Origin of netherness

From Middle English nethernesse, from Old English niþernes (“deepness, the bottom, lowness, a low position”), from Proto-West Germanic *niþernassī, equivalent to nether + -ness. Cognate with Old High German nidarnassi, nidarnessi (“damnation”).

Questions about netherness

What does netherness mean?
Netherness means the state or quality of being nether or beneath; lowness; inferiority.
What part of speech is netherness?
Netherness is a noun.

Words near netherness in the dictionary

  1. nethermen
  2. nethermind
  3. netherminds
  4. nethermore
  5. nethermost
  6. netherness
  7. netherregion
  8. netherregions
  9. nethers
  10. Nethersaxon
  11. Netherseal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: netherness (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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