rottenness.

The condition of having decayed, or of being deeply corrupt.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• rottenness of the wood
• institutional rottenness

On the page

The rottenness of the wood became clear when the beam split.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror / gothic. 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. Writing functions: atmosphere, description. Commonness: moderately common.