ness
part of speech
noun (a ness, nesses — rare); suffix (-ness)
meaning for a pupil
1) As a suffix, «-ness» is added to an adjective to make a noun that names a quality or state: kind → kindness, happy → happiness, dark → darkness. tree →
2) As a word, a ness is a headland, a piece of high land sticking out into the sea; it appears in place names like Dungeness, Sheerness and Loch Ness area names. tree →
3) (a name) Loch Ness is a long deep lake in Scotland, famous for the legend of the Loch Ness Monster, «Nessie». tree →
4) (a name) Ness can also be a surname, such as Eliot Ness, an American lawman. tree →
sense in the lessons
In English grammar lessons -ness is a key suffix for making abstract nouns from adjectives, and spelling rules apply: a final y changes to i (happy → happiness, lazy → laziness), but a final n is kept (sudden → suddenness). In geography a ness is a coastal feature, and Loch Ness is in lessons about Scotland and myths. Phrases: the Loch Ness Monster, Nessie.
examples
- Add -ness to «kind» to make «kindness». tree →
- Happiness is spelt with an i because the y changes. tree →
- The darkness made the forest feel scary. tree →
- Dungeness is a ness on the coast of Kent. tree →
- We read about the legend of the Loch Ness Monster. tree →
- Nobody has ever proved that Nessie is real. tree →
- Her gentleness made the shy puppy come closer. tree →
- «Openness» keeps both n's: open + ness. tree →
- One of these soldiers was a no-ble-man, whom everybody loved for his gen-tle-ness and kindness. tree →
note
As a suffix, -ness makes uncountable nouns (kindness, sadness), though some can be countable (a kindness, many illnesses). Spelling: consonant + y becomes i before -ness (busy → business, happy → happiness); words ending in n keep it, so you get double n (keenness, thinness). On its own «ness» is rare outside place names, so if you see it alone it is probably a suffix or a name. The Loch Ness Monster is a legend, not a proven animal.
In the corpora
- Split «hopelessness» and it is just hope + less + ness.
- «Business» is busy + ness, with the y changed to i.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «ness» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.