HARDNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does hardness mean? 

• HARDNESS (noun)
  The noun HARDNESS has 5 senses:

1. the property of being rigid and resistant to pressure; not easily scratched; measured on Mohs scale

2. a quality of water that contains dissolved mineral salts that prevent soap from lathering

3. devoid of passion or feeling; hardheartedness

4. the quality of being difficult to do

5. excessive sternness

  Familiarity information: HARDNESS used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HARDNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The property of being rigid and resistant to pressure; not easily scratched; measured on Mohs scale

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

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

body; consistence; consistency; substance (the property of holding together and retaining its shape)

Attribute:

hard (resisting weight or pressure)

soft (yielding readily to pressure or weight)

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

firmness (the property of being unyielding to the touch)

incompressibility (the property of being incompressible)

Antonym:

softness (the property of giving little resistance to pressure and being easily cut or molded)

Derivation:

hard (resisting weight or pressure)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A quality of water that contains dissolved mineral salts that prevent soap from lathering

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

the costs of reducing hardness depend on the relative amounts of calcium and magnesium compounds that are present

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

quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Devoid of passion or feeling; hardheartedness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

callosity; callousness; hardness; insensibility; unfeelingness

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

insensitiveness; insensitivity (the inability to respond to affective changes in your interpersonal environment)

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

dullness (lack of sensibility)

Derivation:

hard (dispassionate)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The quality of being difficult to do

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

hardness; ruggedness

Context example:

the ruggedness of his exams caused half the class to fail

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

difficultness; difficulty (the quality of being difficult)

Derivation:

hard (not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure)

hard (characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Excessive sternness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

hardness; harshness; inclemency; rigor; rigorousness; rigour; rigourousness; severeness; severity; stiffness

Context example:

the rigors of boot camp

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

sternness; strictness (uncompromising resolution)

Derivation:

hard (unfortunate or hard to bear)

 Context examples 

Look where he would, he seemed to see nothing but injustice and violence and the hardness of man to man.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The hardness of the pavement for her feet, made him less willing upon the present occasion; he did it, however.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I was very much concerned for his misfortunes, and felt that any recognition short of ninepence would be mere brutality and hardness of heart.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He has been very deceitful! and, in some points, there seems a hardness of heart about him.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

These differences are likely related to the hardness and fracture properties of the almond and the degree of structural breakdown during processing and chewing.

(Going Nuts Over Calories, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

Hardness is the property of a material that enables it to resist plastic deformation, usually by penetration.

(Device Hardness Testing Evaluation Method, Food and Drug Administration)

He noticed her face harden, but it was with the hardness of resolution, for still the soft color was in her cheeks and she was all glowing and melting.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Was it hardness, was it selfishness, that she should ask me to risk my life for her own glorification?

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At present, products such as laminated bamboo are most commonly used as flooring materials due to their hardness and durability.

(Visualising heat flow in bamboo could help design more energy-efficient and fire-safe buildings, University of Cambridge)

He knew not what could be the use of those several clefts and divisions in my feet behind; that these were too soft to bear the hardness and sharpness of stones, without a covering made from the skin of some other brute; that my whole body wanted a fence against heat and cold, which I was forced to put on and off every day, with tediousness and trouble: and lastly, that he observed every animal in this country naturally to abhor the Yahoos, whom the weaker avoided, and the stronger drove from them.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)