Meaning

4 senses
  1. (countable, uncountable)Rigidity or a measure of rigidity.

    Erstarrung, Starre, Steife

    жёсткостьžóstkostʹ

  2. (countable, uncountable)Inflexibility or a measure of inflexibility.

  3. (countable, uncountable)Inelegance; a lack of relaxedness.

    His stiffness hampered the conversation.

    чо́порностьčópornostʹ

    the inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by embarrassment)

  4. (countable, uncountable)Muscular tension due to unaccustomed or excessive exercise or work; soreness.

Examples

5 sentences
  1. She stretched to relieve the stiffness in her back.

    CC BY 2.0 FR · Tatoeba · Chrikaru · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  2. You need a parameter to capture the stiffness of the metal.

    deEs ist ein Parameter für die Steifigkeit des Metalls nötig. — Yorwba

    CC BY 2.0 FR · Tatoeba · AlanF_US · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  3. Have you recently felt any unexplained pain or stiffness in your neck?

    CC BY 2.0 FR · Tatoeba · NurseMeeks · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  4. One of the effects of progressive muscle diseases like cerebral palsy is muscle stiffness.

    CC0 · Tatoeba · Cangarejo · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  5. Tom felt the stiffness in his joints as he stood up after sitting in the same position for a long time.

    CC BY 2.0 FR · Tatoeba · Chrikaru · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

7 languages
Русский
By meaning 2
rigidity:
inelegance; lack of relaxedness:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
rigidity:

Origin

From Middle English stiffenes, styffenesse, styfnesse; equivalent to stiff + -ness. Perhap

From Middle English stiffenes, styffenesse, styfnesse; equivalent to stiff + -ness. Perhaps merging with Middle English stithnesse, stithnysse, from Old English stīþness (“stiffness”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: stiffnesses
Singularstiffness
Pluralstiffnesses

regular

Synonyms

12 synonyms
Close in meaning

Word family

2 related words
Relatedstiff

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
stiffness — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto