Openness

How to spell openness

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce openness

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does openness mean?

1. nounThe quality of being honest, receptive, or free from concealment.

Openness in a sentence

• The manager valued the openness of her team during difficult discussions.

• A culture of openness encourages staff to report mistakes without fear.

Where does openness come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word open descends from the Old English adjective 'open', meaning 'not closed' or 'exposed', which traces back to the same Germanic root that gave us the word 'up'; the original idea was something raised or lifted so that its inside is laid bare. The suffix -ness is also native English, an old way of turning an adjective into an abstract noun naming the quality it describes, as in 'kindness' and 'darkness'. Joined together, openness simply names the state of being open, whether physically, like an unobstructed space, or figuratively, like a willingness to share thoughts honestly. The spelling trap lives right at the seam: because the base ends in the letter n and the suffix begins with an n, the word carries a doubled 'nn' that writers often reduce to one. The same pattern shows up in 'suddenness' and 'keenness', where the root's final consonant meets the suffix and both letters must be kept.

How the word is built

• open (from Old English open: not shut, exposed)
• -ness (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or quality)