Word.ws English Dictionary

retentiveness

retentiveness noun: the state of being retentive.

Noun

retentiveness (uncountable)

  1. The state of being retentive.
    • The Neolithic of 8000 to 6000 B.C. is in the sign of Cancer, a feminine sign associated with domesticity, retentiveness, and sentiment.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 131

Origin of retentiveness

From retentive + -ness.

Questions about retentiveness

What does retentiveness mean?
Retentiveness means the state of being retentive.
What part of speech is retentiveness?
Retentiveness is a noun.

Words near retentiveness in the dictionary

  1. retentionist
  2. retentionists
  3. retentions
  4. retentive
  5. retentively
  6. retentiveness
  7. retentives
  8. retentivities
  9. retentivity
  10. retentor
  11. retentors

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: retentiveness (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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