What does "skittishness" mean?

The property of being skittish.

What is a synonym for "skittishness"?

Common synonyms include: animal spirits, animation, confusion, diffidence, elan, embarrassment.

Skittishness

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
The property of being skittish. uncountable
"While the California economy maintains its powerhouse status[…] the state’s most-powerful sectors[…]have struggled to keep their footing, pummeled by high interest rates, investor skittishness, labor strife and other turmoil."
2
characterized by nervousness and quickness to take fright wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

animal spirits animation confusion diffidence elan embarrassment

Example

More examples

"While the California economy maintains its powerhouse status[…] the state’s most-powerful sectors[…]have struggled to keep their footing, pummeled by high interest rates, investor skittishness, labor strife and other turmoil."

Etymology

From skittish + -ness.

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