Word.ws English Dictionary

standoffishness

standoffishness noun: the state, quality, or condition of being standoffish or aloof and unsociable; aloofness.

Noun

standoffishness (uncountable)

  1. The state, quality, or condition of being standoffish or aloof and unsociable; aloofness.
    • Many of the seemingly bizarre courtship practices of English males—the cautiousness, reserve and apparent stand-offishness that foreign females complain about—are characteristic features of ‘negative politeness’.2004, Kate Fox, “Rules of Sex”, in Watching the English, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 336

Forms of standoffishness

alternative formstand-offishness

Origin of standoffishness

From standoffish + -ness.

Questions about standoffishness

What does standoffishness mean?
Standoffishness means the state, quality, or condition of being standoffish or aloof and unsociable; aloofness.
What part of speech is standoffishness?
Standoffishness is a noun.

Words near standoffishness in the dictionary

  1. Standley
  2. Standleys
  3. standoff
  4. standoffish
  5. standoffishly
  6. standoffishness
  7. standoffs
  8. standom
  9. Standon
  10. standout
  11. standoutish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: standoffishness (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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