threateningness
- noun
- /ˈθrɛtənɪŋnəs/
- The dog's growl carried an air of threateningness, warning anyone to stay away.
Examples
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The dark storm clouds added a sense of threateningness to the otherwise peaceful landscape.
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Her sudden silence created a threateningness that left everyone in the room feeling uneasy.
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Similarly, here, Isis's (or any woman scientist's) 'threateningness' is not because of their actual reasonable human valid choices, but rather because they are women.
Blog text (2) -
In specific, Obama's 'threateningness' is because he's part of a suspect class (having a 'black' ancestor and therefore being 'black', thank you one drop of black blood America).
Blog text (2)
Synonyms
The chance that something will harm people or property
A feeling of fear caused by something you see or hear
A quality that makes people feel scared
A strong feeling of fear when something is very scary
Antonyms
How Threatening
Surface Forms
Morphology
threateningness = threatening (transparent) = threaten + ing + ness
Standard noun formation from the adjective 'threatening' with '-ness' yields the quality or state and is directly predictable from the adjective.
Etymology
Threateningness comes from the verb threaten, which comes from the noun threat meaning 'a danger or warning'. The ending -ness makes it a state or quality, so threateningness is the 'quality of seeming likely to cause harm or fear', which is why we use it for things that feel dangerous or scary.