Defensiveness

noun

noun ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state or quality of being defensive. uncountable, usually

    "The gay vs. straight confrontation has been dealt with before in movies and plays but never with the gay character in control and never so free of defensiveness or homosexual guilt."

  2. 2
    excessive sensitivity to criticism wordnet

Example

More examples

"His excessive defensiveness and avoidance of direct questions suggest an attempt to hide the truth."

Etymology

From defensive + -ness.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.