guardedness.

A reluctance to reveal thoughts, feelings, or information because you are protecting yourself.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• emotional guardedness
• an air of guardedness

On the page

The warmth of her greeting did not erase the guardedness of her answers.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / human behavior. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. 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. Commonness: moderately common.