Word.ws English Dictionary

stedfastness

stedfastness is the obsolete form of steadfastness.

Meaning of steadfastness

Noun

steadfastness (countable and uncountable, plural steadfastnesses)

  1. Loyalty in the face of trouble and difficulty.
  2. A steadfast resolution.
    • [H]e [Paul] laboureth to comfort Timothy vvith the remembrance of the ſtedfaſtneſs of Gods eternal decree of Election, becauſe grounded on his foreknowledge; […]1684, John Bunyan, A Holy Life, the Beauty of Christianity: Or, An Exhortation to Christians to be Holy, London: […] B. W. for Benj[amin] Alsop, […], →OCLC, page 3

Origin of stedfastness

From Middle English stedfastnes, stedfastnesse (“firmness of purpose; fortitude; loyalty, fidelity; strength, boldness, courage”), from Old English stedefæstnes (“constancy”); equivalent to stedfast + -ness.

Questions about stedfastness

What is stedfastness the obsolete form of?
Stedfastness is the obsolete form of steadfastness.

Words near stedfastness in the dictionary

  1. Stedefords
  2. stedfast
  3. stedfaster
  4. stedfastest
  5. stedfastly
  6. stedfastness
  7. stedily
  8. Stedman
  9. Stedmans
  10. steds
  11. stedy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stedfastness (page history and authors); steadfastness (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: “stedfastness.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stedfastness. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.