Stiffness

noun

noun ·2 syllables ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Rigidity or a measure of rigidity. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    excessive sternness wordnet
  3. 3
    Inflexibility or a measure of inflexibility. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    the inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by embarrassment) wordnet
  5. 5
    Inelegance; a lack of relaxedness. countable, uncountable

    "His stiffness hampered the conversation."

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    firm resoluteness in purpose or opinion or action wordnet
  2. 7
    Muscular tension due to unaccustomed or excessive exercise or work; soreness. countable, uncountable

    "Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), often referred to by doctors today as juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), is a type of arthritis that causes joint inflammation and stiffness for more than six weeks in a child aged 16 or younger. It affects approximately 50,000 children in the United States. Inflammation causes redness, swelling, warmth, and soreness in the joints, although many children with JRA do not complain of joint pain."

  3. 8
    the property of moving with pain or difficulty wordnet
  4. 9
    the physical property of being inflexible and hard to bend wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
adamantnessaridityawkwardnessawkwardnessbarrennessbloodlessness

Example

More examples

"Tom felt the stiffness in his joints as he stood up after sitting in the same position for a long time."

Etymology

From Middle English stiffenes, styffenesse, styfnesse; equivalent to stiff + -ness. Perhaps merging with Middle English stithnesse, stithnysse, from Old English stīþness (“stiffness”).

Related phrases

death-stiffness

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