firmness

firm +‎ -ness

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɝmnəs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɜːmnəs/

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• Hyphenation: firm‧ness

firmness (countable and uncountable, plural firmnesses)

1. The state of being firm
   1. security; steadfastness; good grip
   2. strictness; mental strength
      • 1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 23, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC:

        But many a man who would have stood within a home dismantled, strong in his passion and design of vengeance, has had the firmness of his nature conquered by the razing of an air–built castle.

      • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

        France, for the first time since the death of Charlemagne, was governed by a prince of great firmness and ability.

   3. physical durability; rigidness (of material)

• “firmness”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.