Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or quality of being clear
  • noun Freedom from anything that diminishes brightness, transparency, or purity of color: as, the clearness of water or other liquid; clearness of skin.
  • noun Distinctness to the senses; the character of being readily and exactly perceived: as, clearness to the view.
  • noun Freedom from obstruction or encumbrance: as, the clearness of the ground.
  • noun Distinctness to the mind; perspicuity; intelligibility.
  • noun Acuteness of thought; absence of mental confusion; perspicacity.
  • noun Acuteness of a sense: as, clearness of sight.
  • noun Plainness or plain dealing; sincerity; honesty; fairness; candor.
  • noun Freedom from imputation or suspicion of ill.
  • noun In painting, that peculiar quality in a picture which is realized by a skilful arrangement and interdependence of colors, tints, and tones, in accordance with the principles of chiaroscuro.

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

  • noun The quality or state of being clear.

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

  • noun free from obscurity and easy to understand; the comprehensibility of clear expression
  • noun the quality of clear water

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From clear +‎ -ness

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Examples

  • Log in to Reply eddge (UID#1298) on November 12th, 2009 at 5: 24 pm not too bad a shop job. color clearness is a little off with the truck in the pic. i think the front tire looks funny and the dude imposed in the truck is a pretty small guy or they didnt side him right. the edges are a little rough on the cut too.

    a large truck | My[confined]Space 2009

  • I can NOT understand a determinism like yours, which rejoices in clearness and distinctions, and which is at the same time alive to moral ones -- unless it be that the latter are purely speculative for it, and have little to do with its real feeling of the way life is made up.

    Familiar Letters of William James I 1920

  • Miss Sullivan, who knows her pupil's mind, selects from the passing landscape essential elements, which give a certain clearness to Miss

    The Story of My Life Annie Sullivan 1905

  • These three removes put a gulf impassable between her utmost skill and the impassioned irresolution of that inscrutable Northern nature which is in nothing so masculine as its feminine reluctances and hesitations, or so little French as in those obscure emotions which the English poetry expressed with more than Gallic clearness, but which the French words always failed to convey.

    Literature and Life (Complete) William Dean Howells 1878

  • These three removes put a gulf impassable between her utmost skill and the impassioned irresolution of that inscrutable Northern nature which is in nothing so masculine as its feminine reluctances and hesitations, or so little French as in those obscure emotions which the English poetry expressed with more than Gallic clearness, but which the French words always failed to convey.

    Short Stories and Essays (from Literature and Life) William Dean Howells 1878

  • A certain clearness of judgment is apt to be the blessed handmaid of uncommon truth of character; the mind that knows not what it is to play tricks upon its neighbours is rewarded by a comparative freedom from self-deception.

    Queechy 1854

  • Besides the "paved work of a sapphire stone, as it were the body of heaven in clearness," there, we have here the "throne," and God "as

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • She described at last with extraordinary clearness, which is so often seen, though only for a moment, in such overwrought states, how Ivan had been nearly driven out of his mind during the last two months trying to save “the monster and murderer,” his brother.

    The Brothers Karamazov 2003

  • From a comparison of the works of these eminent men one fact emerges with great clearness, which is that the battle of Lepanto was an indiscriminate mêlée which was decided by some of the most desperate fighting ever recorded, but which depended hardly at all upon the tactical abilities of the men in chief command.

    Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean E. Hamilton Currey

  • Jenny Lind's had incomparably more power and more at all times in reserve; but it had a shade of that same veiled quality in its lowest tones, consistently with the same (but much more) ripeness and sweetness, and perfect freedom from the crudeness often called clearness, as they rise.

    Life of Hon. Phineas T. Barnum 1891

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