Word.ws English Dictionary

tetricity

tetricity noun: the quality of being tetric: crabbedness, harshness, bitterness.

Noun

tetricity (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) The quality of being tetric: crabbedness, harshness, bitterness.
    • His Manner of Laughter is no way agreeable, opening his Mouth too wide: It even ſeems to indicate ſome Conſtraint and Pain: When he ſhuts his Mouth it gives a Tetricity to his Looks; his Noſe is all of a Piece; his Countenance wears a ſettled Gloomineſs; and his Forehead is of the uſual Size and...1751, [Jacques Pernetti], “Letter IV”, in Philosophical Letters upon Physiognomies. To which are added, Dissertations on the Inequality of Souls, Philanthropy, and Misfortunes, London: Printed for R....
    • "Had you truinated this matter with imprejudication," said the Lady Marguerite, "prior to the existimation you have with so much tetricity delivered, it must have been obvious to you, Doctor Gregory Martimas, that your incondite baniloquence must appear to me either arising from incogitancy, or an...1810, Alicia Tindal Palmer, The Daughters of Isenberg, page 77

Origin of tetricity

Borrowed from Latin tetricitas, taetricitas. By surface analysis, tetric + -ity.

Questions about tetricity

What does tetricity mean?
Tetricity means the quality of being tetric: crabbedness, harshness, bitterness.
What part of speech is tetricity?
Tetricity is a noun.

Words near tetricity in the dictionary

  1. tetri
  2. tetriamond
  3. tetriamonds
  4. tetric
  5. tetrical
  6. tetricity
  7. Tetrick
  8. Tetricks
  9. tetrigid
  10. tetrigids
  11. tetrinic acid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tetricity (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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