Neutrality

How to spell neutrality

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce neutrality

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does neutrality mean?

1. nounThe state of not supporting or favouring either side in a conflict, dispute, or disagreement.
2. nounThe condition of a solution being neither acidic nor alkaline.

Neutrality in a sentence

• The country maintained strict neutrality throughout the war.

• The test confirmed the water had reached chemical neutrality.

• As a mediator, she had to preserve her neutrality at all times.

• Adding the base restored the solution to neutrality on the pH scale.

Where does neutrality come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin neuter, meaning literally 'neither of two', a compound of ne, 'not', and uter, 'either'. From this came the medieval Latin neutralitas, used to describe the condition of taking neither side. English received it in the late 1400s, partly through the French neutralité, with the early sense of refusing to support either party in a dispute or war. The same neuter root still sits inside the grammatical term 'neuter' and the chemistry word 'neutral', all sharing the idea of belonging to neither category. The spelling trap lies in the quiet, unstressed middle: the 'eu' that says 'oo' and the '-ality' ending where the 'a' is easy to mishear, so writers must remember it is neutr-al-ity rather than any phonetic guess.

How the word is built

• neutr- (from Latin neuter: neither)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix: state or quality of)