Word.ws English Dictionary

unkindliness

unkindliness noun: unkindness.

Noun

unkindliness (uncountable)

  1. (dated) Unkindness.
    • Lord Walderhurst gazed at her through the monocle with an air he sometimes had of taking her measure without either unkindliness or particular interest.1909, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Emily Fox-Seton
  2. (archaic) Unfavourableness.
    • Luxury did not spoil her; and any one that saw her in the soft furs of her winter wrappings, would have said that delicate cheek and frame were never made to know the unkindliness of harsher things.1854, Elizabeth Wetherell, Queechy, Volume I
  3. (obsolete) Unnaturalness.

Origin of unkindliness

From Middle English wnkyndlynes (“unnatural hostility or wickedness”); equivalent to unkindly + -ness.

Questions about unkindliness

What does unkindliness mean?
Unkindliness means unkindness.
What part of speech is unkindliness?
Unkindliness is a noun.

Words near unkindliness in the dictionary

  1. unkindhearted
  2. unkindled
  3. unkindlier
  4. unkindliest
  5. unkindlily
  6. unkindliness
  7. unkindling
  8. unkindly
  9. unkindness
  10. unkindnesses
  11. unkindred

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unkindliness (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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