Politeness

//pəˈlaɪtnəs// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The quality of being polite. uncountable, usually
  2. 2
    the act of showing regard for others wordnet
  3. 3
    A polite act. countable, usually

    "These politenesses left Miss Marley floundering for initiative, holding Jasper and being solemnly inspected by Podson, who clearly depended on her the convention of an afternoon call."

  4. 4
    a courteous manner that respects accepted social usage wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
civilityaffabilitycourtesyagreeablenessamenitiesamenity

Example

More examples

"Some people say that English politeness is, at bottom, really fear."

Etymology

From polite + -ness.

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