smartness

C2+ Topic:Describing People

US /ˈsmɑrtnəs/ UK /ˈsmɑːtnəs/ See IPA manual

noun

Meanings

1

noun
the quality of being clever, neat, or stylishly elegant

The smartness of his new suit drew admiring glances.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · the quality of being... cleverness intelligence sharpness elegance neatnessstylishnessacuity shrewdness

Opposites

stupidity dullness shabbiness sloppiness

Word family

Related forms smartsmarten

Etymology

From smart + -ness. The adjective smart derives from Old English smeart ('painful, severe, biting'), related to smeortan ('to sting'); the sense 'clever, neat' arose later by extension from 'sharp, brisk'.

smeart Old English *smertaną Proto-Germanic *smerd- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing People Word Formation & Derivatives

# smartness

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** ˈsmɑrtnəs
**IPA (UK):** ˈsmɑːtnəs

## Meanings
1. the quality of being clever, neat, or stylishly elegant

## Examples
- The smartness of his new suit drew admiring glances.

## Synonyms
- cleverness
- intelligence
- sharpness
- elegance
- neatness
- stylishness
- acuity
- shrewdness

## Antonyms
- stupidity
- dullness
- shabbiness
- sloppiness

## Related Forms
- smart
- smarten

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: smeart
- Root: *smertaną
- Root: *smerd-

## Etymology
From smart + -ness. The adjective smart derives from Old English smeart ('painful, severe, biting'), related to smeortan ('to sting'); the sense 'clever, neat' arose later by extension from 'sharp, brisk'.

## AI Etymology
Smartness comes from smart + -ness. The adjective smart derives from Old English smeart ('painful, severe, biting'), related to smeortan ('to sting'); the sense 'clever, neat' arose later by extension from 'sharp, brisk'. The historical chain includes Old English smeart, Proto-Germanic *smertaną, and Proto-Indo-European *smerd-. The quoted older senses, "painful, severe, biting", "to sting", "clever, neat", and "sharp, brisk", supply the semantic anchors for smartness. The formation is best read as suffixal and borrowed: the word smartness carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "the quality of being clever, neat, or stylishly elegant". Related English forms include smart and smarten. The result is a noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- Describing People
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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smartness

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