Word.ws English Dictionary

wantonnesse

wantonnesse is the obsolete form of wantonness.

Meaning of wantonness

Noun

wantonness (usually uncountable, plural wantonnesses)

  1. (usually) The state or characteristic of being wanton; recklessness, especially as represented in lascivious or other excessive behavior.
    • The ſpirit of vvantonness is, ſure, ſcared out of him: if the devil have him not in fee-ſimple, vvith fine and recovery, he vvill never, I think, in the vvay of vvaſte, attempt us again.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. (countable, dated, usually) A particular wanton act.
    • These were simply the wantonnesses of a dishonest man.1882, John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty, volume 3, Boston: Little Brown, page 366

Questions about wantonnesse

What is wantonnesse the obsolete form of?
Wantonnesse is the obsolete form of wantonness.

Words near wantonnesse in the dictionary

  1. wantonized
  2. wantonizes
  3. wantonizing
  4. wantonly
  5. wantonness
  6. wantonnesse
  7. wantonnesses
  8. wantonry
  9. wantons
  10. wantrepreneur
  11. wantrepreneurs

Source and license

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