LOWNESS

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does lowness mean? 

• LOWNESS (noun)
  The noun LOWNESS has 4 senses:

1. a position of inferior status; low in station or rank or fortune or estimation

2. a feeling of low spirits

3. the quality of being low; lacking height

4. a low or small degree of any quality (amount or force or temperature etc.)

  Familiarity information: LOWNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LOWNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A position of inferior status; low in station or rank or fortune or estimation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

low status; lowliness; lowness

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

position; status (the relative position or standing of things or especially persons in a society)

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

inferiority; lower rank; lower status (the state of being inferior)

Derivation:

low (unrefined in character)

low (low or inferior in station or quality)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A feeling of low spirits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

dejectedness; dispiritedness; downheartedness; low-spiritedness; lowness

Context example:

he felt responsible for her lowness of spirits

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

sadness; unhappiness (emotions experienced when not in a state of well-being)

Derivation:

low (filled with melancholy and despondency)

low (subdued or brought low in condition or status)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The quality of being low; lacking height

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

he was suddenly aware of the lowness of the ceiling

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

height; tallness (the vertical dimension of extension; distance from the base of something to the top)

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

squatness; stubbiness (the property of being short and broad)

shortness; truncation (the property of being truncated or short)

Antonym:

highness (the quality of being high or lofty)

Derivation:

low (literal meanings; being at or having a relatively small elevation or upward extension)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A low or small degree of any quality (amount or force or temperature etc.)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

he took advantage of the lowness of interest rates

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

degree; grade; level (a position on a scale of intensity or amount or quality)

Derivation:

low (less than normal in degree or intensity or amount)

low (used of sounds and voices; low in pitch or frequency)

low (very low in volume)

low (no longer sufficient)

 Context examples 

"These would have been all my friends," was her thought; and she had to struggle against a great tendency to lowness.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The subjective property of a tone, determined by the frequency of the wave that produces it, that is perceived as highness or lowness.

(Pitch, NCI Thesaurus)

But through all the confusion and lowness of spirits in which we had been, so unexpectedly to me, involved, I plainly discerned that Mr. and Mrs. Micawber and their family were going away from London, and that a parting between us was near at hand.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I am rather of a jealous temper too by nature, and from our different situations in life, from his being so much more in the world than me, and our continual separation, I was enough inclined for suspicion, to have found out the truth in an instant, if there had been the slightest alteration in his behaviour to me when we met, or any lowness of spirits that I could not account for, or if he had talked more of one lady than another, or seemed in any respect less happy at Longstaple than he used to be.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The present unhappy state of the family rendered any other excuse for the lowness of her spirits unnecessary; nothing, therefore, could be fairly conjectured from that, though Elizabeth, who was by this time tolerably well acquainted with her own feelings, was perfectly aware that, had she known nothing of Darcy, she could have borne the dread of Lydia's infamy somewhat better.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

He had very good spirits, which never seemed much affected by his wife's occasional lowness, bore with her unreasonableness sometimes to Anne's admiration, and upon the whole, though there was very often a little disagreement (in which she had sometimes more share than she wished, being appealed to by both parties), they might pass for a happy couple.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)