SWEETNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sweetness mean? 

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

1. the taste experience when sugar dissolves in the mouth

2. the property of tasting as if it contains sugar

3. a pleasingly sweet olfactory property

4. the quality of giving pleasure

  Familiarity information: SWEETNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SWEETNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The taste experience when sugar dissolves in the mouth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

sugariness; sweet; sweetness

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

gustatory perception; gustatory sensation; taste; taste perception; taste sensation (the sensation that results when taste buds in the tongue and throat convey information about the chemical composition of a soluble stimulus)

Derivation:

sweet (having or denoting the characteristic taste of sugar)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The property of tasting as if it contains sugar

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

sweet; sweetness

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

taste property (a property appreciated via the sense of taste)

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

saccharinity (the excessive sweetness of saccharin)

sugariness (the sweetness of sugar)

Derivation:

sweet (with sweetening added)

sweet ((used of wines) having a high residual sugar content)

sweet (having or denoting the characteristic taste of sugar)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A pleasingly sweet olfactory property

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

bouquet; fragrance; fragrancy; redolence; sweetness

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

aroma; odor; odour; olfactory property; scent; smell (any property detected by the olfactory system)

Derivation:

sweet (having a natural fragrance)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The quality of giving pleasure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

pleasantness; sweetness

Context example:

the pleasantness of a cool breeze on a hot summer day

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

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

Attribute:

pleasant (affording pleasure; being in harmony with your taste or likings)

unpleasant (offensive or disagreeable; causing discomfort or unhappiness)

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

pleasingness (the quality of giving pleasure to the senses)

agreeableness; amenity (pleasantness resulting from agreeable conditions)

enjoyableness (pleasantness resulting from something that can be enjoyed)

niceness (the quality of nice)

Derivation:

sweet (having a sweet nature befitting an angel or cherub)

sweet (pleasing to the ear)

sweet (pleasing to the mind or feeling)

sweet (pleasing to the senses)

 Context examples 

And poor, poor Arthur, to have lost such sweetness out of his life!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"A strong mind, with sweetness of manner," made the first and the last of the description.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The extreme sweetness of her temper must hurt his.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I am exceedingly gratified, said Bingley, by your converting what my friend says into a compliment on the sweetness of my temper.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

She thanked him again and again; and, with a sweetness of address which always attended her, invited him to be seated.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

No—I have touched you, heard you, felt the comfort of your presence—the sweetness of your consolation: I cannot give up these joys.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You have given the name such reality of sweetness, that nothing else can now be descriptive of you.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The world as he saw it was a fierce and brutal world, a world without warmth, a world in which caresses and affection and the bright sweetnesses of the spirit did not exist.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Agnes sang with great sweetness and expression, and so did Mrs. Strong.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He sniffed the sweetness of the tawny grass, which entered his brain and set his thoughts whirling on from the particular to the universal.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)