Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
prickliness

prickliness

1 6.7
Being covered in many small sharp points, like a cactus or rose bush
  • noun
  • /ˈprɪk.lɪ.nəs/
translation icon : espinosidad

Examples

  • Other plants suggest prickliness, like sawtooth oak.

    Academic text (1995)

  • I appreciate Gregson's reticence and prickliness: it's completely within character for him as a cop and makes him more flawed and complex.

    Blog text (15)

  • It was easy for many Democrats to believe, during the nightmare years of "freedom fries," that George W. Bush alone was to blame for the diplomatic prickliness between, say, Washington and Paris.

    Blog text (7)

  • The next morning, I reached down to stroke my sleek calves and recoiled in horror when my fingers encountered a disgusting prickliness.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Rock 'N' Roll, in which Berry at times appears moved to little more than fantastic prickliness, correcting, reproving, and otherwise belittling Richards as Richards leads the pickup band through rehearsals.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The prickliness of the cactus made it clear that it was not safe to touch.

  • You could feel the prickliness of the thorns as he brushed past the rose bushes.

  • Her prickliness was evident when she reacted sharply to any suggestion.

Synonyms

spininess
vsprickliness
8.6

A state of being covered with many sharp thorns

is the same quality rather than a different type of covering
thorniness
vsprickliness
7.6

Covered with sharp thorns that can scratch the skin

is less about sharpness and more about general poking
bristliness
vsprickliness
7.7

The state of being covered with short, stiff hairs or spines

is about sharp or pointed coverings rather than stiff hairs

Antonyms

softness
3 1.8

A gentle, kind way of acting toward others

smoothness
1 2.6

How something works without pauses or problems

How Prickly

prickliness
1 6.7
spikiness
4.6
smoothness
5 1.9

Surface Forms

prickliness singular
pricklinesses plural

Morphology

prickliness = prickly (transparent) = prick + ly + ness

Formed by the adjective 'prickly' plus the productive nominalizing suffix '-ness'; the meaning straightforwardly denotes the quality of being prickly.

Etymology

Prickliness starts with the simple word prick, which means 'to make a small sharp hole or sting', then becomes the word prickly and takes the ending -ness to make a noun. So prickliness is the 'state of being' full of little sharp points, like thorns or spines that can prick you.