Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Intimacy; familiarity.
  • noun Preoccupation with one's own thoughts or feelings; introspection.
  • noun The intrinsic or indispensable properties of something; essence.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being inward or internal; inclosure within.
  • noun Internal state; indwelling character or quality; the nature of a thing as it is in itself.
  • noun Inner meaning; real significance or drift; essential purpose.
  • noun Intimacy; familiarity; attachment.
  • noun The inwards; the heart; the soul.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Internal or true state; essential nature.
  • noun obsolete Intimacy; familiarity.
  • noun Heartiness; earnestness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The characteristic of being inward; directed towards the inside.
  • noun obsolete Internal or true state; essential nature.
  • noun obsolete intimacy; familiarity
  • noun obsolete heartiness; earnestness

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun preoccupation especially with one's attitudes and ethical or ideological values
  • noun the quality or state of being inward or internal
  • noun preoccupation with what concerns human inner nature (especially ethical or ideological values)
  • noun the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

inward +‎ -ness

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Examples

  • We are such inward secret creatures, that inwardness is the most amazing thing about us, even more amazing than our reason. but we cannot just walk into the cavern and look around.

    Come With Me My Love To the Sea, the Sea of Love… « So Many Books 2005

  • In a way, John Ames, with his intense scholarship and inwardness, is a type of religious figure that crosses cultures.

    Gilead's Balm 2004

  • In a way, John Ames, with his intense scholarship and inwardness, is a type of religious figure that crosses cultures.

    Gilead's Balm 2004

  • In a way, John Ames, with his intense scholarship and inwardness, is a type of religious figure that crosses cultures.

    Gilead's Balm 2004

  • I clearly remember the day it finally occurred to me that insects, animals and the like had "inwardness"--that they felt pain and fear the same way I did.

    Instant Empathy? Steven Barnes 2008

  • Strictly speaking, the appearance of "inwardness" in the external world — that is, the appearance of forms incommensurable with the "laws" of the visible world — is an impossible event, a contradiction that produces the intrinsic obscurity of nightlife (its location, its language, its social composition).

    Club Monad 2008

  • In order for white audiences to sense their "inwardness" the actors had to be white.

    A different perspective on Carradine's career. Steven Barnes 2009

  • Just like that, one day the switch flipped from off to on, and I grasped their "inwardness".

    Forgive Michael Vick? Steven Barnes 2009

  • There was far greater respect for the "inwardness" of, say, Greek captives,I don't believe conservatives really think Iraq is in the best interests of the United States.

    What Would YOU Think? Steven Barnes 2008

  • When I wrote "Lion's Blood," my story of Africans colonizing America, I tasked myself to give the Irish slaves more humanity, more "inwardness" than I had ever seen a white author give black characters.

    Writing What You Don't Know 2006

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