UNPLEASANTNESS

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does unpleasantness mean? 

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

1. the feeling caused by disagreeable stimuli; one pole of a continuum of states of feeling

2. the quality of giving displeasure

  Familiarity information: UNPLEASANTNESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNPLEASANTNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The feeling caused by disagreeable stimuli; one pole of a continuum of states of feeling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

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

pain; painfulness (emotional distress; a fundamental feeling that people try to avoid)

Antonym:

pleasantness (the feeling caused by agreeable stimuli; one pole of a continuum of states of feeling)

Derivation:

unpleasant (offensive or disagreeable; causing discomfort or unhappiness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of giving displeasure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

the recent unpleasantness of the weather

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

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

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

unpleasingness (the quality of being unpleasant to to the senses)

disagreeableness (the quality of being disagreeable and unpleasant)

nastiness (the quality of being highly unpleasant)

distastefulness; odiousness; offensiveness (the quality of being offensive)

awfulness; dreadfulness; horridness; terribleness (a quality of extreme unpleasantness)

harshness; roughness (the quality of being harsh or rough or grating to the senses)

Antonym:

pleasantness (the quality of giving pleasure)

Derivation:

unpleasant (offensive or disagreeable; causing discomfort or unhappiness)

 Context examples 

A visual analog scale of 0 to 20 used by a subject to define their pain unpleasantness experience.

(Gracely Pain Unpleasantness Scale, NCI Thesaurus)

To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small unpleasantness. Do not join in it.

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

I am sure, said Uriah, writhing himself into the silence like a Conger-eel, that this is a subject full of unpleasantness to everybody.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I have no such scruples, and I am sure I could put up with every unpleasantness of that kind with very little effort.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

No significant differences in reductions of pain intensity or pain unpleasantness were seen between the meditation plus naloxone and the meditation plus saline groups.

(Scientists discover non-opioid pain pathway in the brain, NIH)

Together with the unpleasantness scale these tools serve to differentiate the patient's sensory perception of pain intensity from their affective experience of the pain's "unpleasant" quality.

(Gracely Pain Intensity Scale, NCI Thesaurus)

Vomiting caused by expectation of discomfort or unpleasantness.

(Anticipatory Vomiting, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

We were prepared for some unpleasantness, for as we were opening the door a faint, malodorous air seemed to exhale through the gaps, but none of us ever expected such an odour as we encountered.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Perhaps you are not so much aware as I am of the mischief that may, of the unpleasantness that must arise from a young man's being received in this manner: domesticated among us; authorised to come at all hours, and placed suddenly on a footing which must do away all restraints.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Without suffering any romantic alarm, in the consideration of their daughter's long and lonely journey, Mr. and Mrs. Morland could not but feel that it might have been productive of much unpleasantness to her; that it was what they could never have voluntarily suffered; and that, in forcing her on such a measure, General Tilney had acted neither honourably nor feelingly—neither as a gentleman nor as a parent.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)