DESIRABLENESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does desirableness mean? 

• DESIRABLENESS (noun)
  The noun DESIRABLENESS has 2 senses:

1. the quality of being worthy of desiring

2. attractiveness to the opposite sex

  Familiarity information: DESIRABLENESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DESIRABLENESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of being worthy of desiring

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

desirability; desirableness

Hypernyms ("desirableness" is a kind of...):

good; goodness (that which is pleasing or valuable or useful)

Derivation:

desirable (worth having or seeking or achieving)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Attractiveness to the opposite sex

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

desirability; desirableness; oomph; sex appeal

Hypernyms ("desirableness" is a kind of...):

attractiveness (sexual allure)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "desirableness"):

sultriness (the quality of expressing or arousing sexual desire)

Derivation:

desirable (worthy of being chosen especially as a spouse)

 Context examples 

Mr. Crawford suggested the greater desirableness of some carriage which might convey more than two.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She would not speak to Anne with half the certainty she felt on the subject, she would venture on little more than hints of what might be hereafter, of a possible attachment on his side, of the desirableness of the alliance, supposing such attachment to be real and returned.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Harriet expressed herself very much as might be supposed, without reproaches, or apparent sense of ill-usage; and yet Emma fancied there was a something of resentment, a something bordering on it in her style, which increased the desirableness of their being separate.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Mrs. Norris was most zealous in promoting the match, by every suggestion and contrivance likely to enhance its desirableness to either party; and, among other means, by seeking an intimacy with the gentleman's mother, who at present lived with him, and to whom she even forced Lady Bertram to go through ten miles of indifferent road to pay a morning visit.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)