noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The essence of what it means to be a rock; the qualities that make a rock what it is. uncountable

   "We do not have to become a rock to study rocks, but we do have to understand the nature of “rockness.”"

2. 2
   The quality of music being rock music, or generally "rocking" (being excitingly good). slang, uncountable

Example

More examples

"We do not have to become a rock to study rocks, but we do have to understand the nature of “rockness.”"

Etymology

From rock + -ness.

Related phrases

rock music

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