SMOOTHNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does smoothness mean? 

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

1. a texture without roughness; smooth to the touch

2. powerful and effective language

3. the quality of being bland and gracious or ingratiating in manner

4. the quality of having a level and even surface

5. the quality of being free from errors or interruptions

  Familiarity information: SMOOTHNESS used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SMOOTHNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A texture without roughness; smooth to the touch

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

some artists prefer the smoothness of a board

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

texture (the feel of a surface or a fabric)

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

silkiness; sleekness (the smooth feel of silk fabric)

slick; slickness; slip; slipperiness (a slippery smoothness)

fineness; powderiness (having a very fine texture)

burnish; gloss; glossiness; polish (the property of being smooth and shiny)

Antonym:

roughness (a texture of a surface or edge that is not smooth but is irregular and uneven)

Derivation:

smooth (having a surface free from roughness or bumps or ridges or irregularities)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Powerful and effective language

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

eloquence; fluency; smoothness

Context example:

his oily smoothness concealed his guilt from the police

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

expressive style; style (a way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The quality of being bland and gracious or ingratiating in manner

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

blandness; smoothness; suaveness; suavity

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

graciousness (excellence of manners or social conduct)

Derivation:

smooth (smoothly agreeable and courteous with a degree of sophistication)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The quality of having a level and even surface

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

the weather system of the Pacific is determined by the uninterrupted smoothness of the ocean

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

evenness; invariability (a quality of uniformity and lack of variation)

Derivation:

smooth ((of a body of water) free from disturbance by heavy waves)

smooth (of the margin of a leaf shape; not broken up into teeth)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The quality of being free from errors or interruptions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

the five-speed manual gearbox is smoothness personified

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

effortlessness (the quality of requiring little effort)

Derivation:

smooth (lacking obstructions or difficulties)

smooth (smooth and unconstrained in movement)

smooth (of motion that runs or flows or proceeds without jolts or turbulence)

smooth ((music) without breaks between notes; smooth and connected)

 Context examples 

His last word, in striking contrast with the smoothness of his previous utterance, snapped like the lash of a whip.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

At last, however, the bumping of the road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, and the carriage came to a stand.

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

He smiled, such a soft, smooth, diabolical smile that I knew there was some trick behind his smoothness.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I can only say that there was smoothness outwardly.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The evening passed with external smoothness, though almost every mind was ruffled; and the music which Sir Thomas called for from his daughters helped to conceal the want of real harmony.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The smoothness of the plains, as well as their grooves and faint ridges, are clear signs of wide-scale resurfacing.

(Pluto’s Big Moon Charon Reveals a Colorful and Violent History, NASA)

I felt the words of my lessons slipping off, not one by one, or line by line, but by the entire page; I tried to lay hold of them; but they seemed, if I may so express it, to have put skates on, and to skim away from me with a smoothness there was no checking.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He took up all my clothes in his pastern, one piece after another, and examined them diligently; he then stroked my body very gently, and looked round me several times; after which, he said, it was plain I must be a perfect Yahoo; but that I differed very much from the rest of my species in the softness, whiteness, and smoothness of my skin; my want of hair in several parts of my body; the shape and shortness of my claws behind and before; and my affectation of walking continually on my two hinder feet.

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

He dived out of the galley door, or glided rather, with a swiftness and smoothness of gait that struck me as being not so much cat-like as oily.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It was all general approbation and smoothness; nothing delineated or distinguished.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)