STEADFASTNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does steadfastness mean? 

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

1. loyalty in the face of trouble and difficulty

2. steadfast resolution

  Familiarity information: STEADFASTNESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STEADFASTNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Loyalty in the face of trouble and difficulty

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

staunchness; steadfastness

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

loyalty; trueness (the quality of being loyal)

Derivation:

steadfast (firm and dependable especially in loyalty)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Steadfast resolution

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

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

firmness; firmness of purpose; resoluteness; resolution; resolve (the trait of being resolute)

Derivation:

steadfast (marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable)

 Context examples 

There was an unceremonious directness, a searching, decided steadfastness in his gaze now, which told that intention, and not diffidence, had hitherto kept it averted from the stranger.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

As a Taurus, you tend to like to keep things “as is,” and your loyalty and steadfastness are among your most lovable qualities.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

He was greyer, the lines in his face and forehead were deeper, and he had every appearance of having toiled and wandered through all varieties of weather; but he looked very strong, and like a man upheld by steadfastness of purpose, whom nothing could tire out.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It is needless to say that the dead steersman has been reverently removed from the place where he held his honourable watch and ward till death—a steadfastness as noble as that of the young Casabianca—and placed in the mortuary to await inquest.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)