definiteness.

1. The presence of precise specification, settled limits or clearly fixed identity.

2. The grammatical property of marking a referent as identifiable or treated as identifiable in context.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• definiteness of a commitment
• definiteness of wording

On the page

The commitment’s definiteness made the later change easy to identify.

Definiteness of wording reduced uncertainty about the object being discussed.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: style analysis, interpretation, characterization, rhetorical contrast. Disciplines: literary analysis, prose writing, advanced general English. Commonness: uncommon.