keenness

Other forms of keenness

plural

keennesses·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about keenness

What does keenness mean?

keenness means "a quick and penetrating intelligence". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in keenness?

keenness has 2 syllables and divides as keen-ness under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

What is another word for keenness?

Close synonyms include acuteness, acuity, sharpness, eagerness, avidity. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is keenness a common word?

keenness is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.