READINESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does readiness mean? 

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

1. the state of having been made ready or prepared for use or action (especially military action)

2. prompt willingness

3. (psychology) being temporarily ready to respond in a particular way

4. a natural effortlessness

  Familiarity information: READINESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• READINESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of having been made ready or prepared for use or action (especially military action)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

preparation; preparedness; readiness

Context example:

their preparation was more than adequate

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

state (the way something is with respect to its main attributes)

Attribute:

ready (completely prepared or in condition for immediate action or use or progress)

unready (not prepared or in a state of readiness; slow to understand or respond)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

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

ready (poised for action)

alert; qui vive (condition of heightened watchfulness or preparation for action)

Derivation:

ready (completely prepared or in condition for immediate action or use or progress)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Prompt willingness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

eagerness; forwardness; readiness; zeal

Context example:

he tried to explain his forwardness in battle

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

willingness (cheerful compliance)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(psychology) being temporarily ready to respond in a particular way

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

readiness; set

Context example:

his instructions deliberately gave them the wrong set

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

cognitive state; state of mind (the state of a person's cognitive processes)

Domain category:

psychological science; psychology (the science of mental life)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A natural effortlessness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

facility; readiness

Context example:

a happy readiness of conversation

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

effortlessness (the quality of requiring little effort)

Derivation:

ready (apprehending and responding with speed and sensitivity)

 Context examples 

I will do my best with the greatest readiness; but I must read the part, for I can say very little of it.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Next day, the mast-steps clear and everything in readiness, we started to get the two topmasts aboard.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

They were expected about dark, and ere dusk fires were lit upstairs and below; the kitchen was in perfect trim; Hannah and I were dressed, and all was in readiness.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Godalming thinks that it will be well to have horses always in readiness, for when we get the information which we seek there will be no time to lose.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

She was up in my study, Peggotty said: which it was her pride to keep in readiness and order for me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Jackson having replied with a readiness which many a public man might have envied, my uncle rose once more.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have found him capable of giving me much information on various subjects; and he has always answered my inquiries with readiness of good-breeding and good nature.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

“I have every hope, however, that your horse will start upon Tuesday, and I beg that you will have your jockey in readiness. Might I ask for a photograph of Mr. John Straker?”

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The next moment he was nonplussed by the readiness of his acceptance.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

When he looked about him for another and a less intractable damsel to immortalize in melody, memory produced one with the most obliging readiness.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)