noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The quality of being rotten. countable, uncountable

   "The track was further weakened by the too wide spacing of the sleepers, most of which "were in the last stage of rottenness.""

2. 2
   the quality of rotting and becoming putrid wordnet
3. 3
   in a state of progressive putrefaction wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

abandonabjectionbasenessbestialitybrutalitycaries

Example

More examples

"Envy is like rottenness of the bones."

Etymology

From Middle English rotennesse; equivalent to rotten + -ness.

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