Diluteness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality or state of being less concentrated or weaker by the addition of a liquid ; the condition of having reduced strength, intensity, or purity due to mixing with another substance ; the characteristic of being thin or diluted rather than dense or strong
2. The condition of containing less substance per volume because of added liquid ; the attribute of diminished potency or thickness resulting from mixing with a solvent ; the measure of something becoming watered down or less dense by combination with another liquid
3. A property describing a lowered concentration through dilution ; the state of a solution or mixture having decreased strength or richness by the introduction of a solvent ; the factor of being made less concentrated or more fluid by admixture with another liquid

Etymology: Diluteness is a plain formation: the adjective "dilute" with the suffix "-ness" added to turn a quality into a noun. "Dilute" comes from Latin "dilutus," the past participle of "diluere," meaning "to wash away" or "to wash apart," built from "di-" (apart) and "luere" (to wash). The idea of washing something until it loses its strength is still visible in the word's core sense. The suffix has a longer history than the base. "-ness" descends from Old English "-nes," which was attached to adjectives to form abstract nouns, and the same ending appears in words like "kindness" and "darkness." Its ancestry goes back through Proto-Germanic to older Indo-European forms, but English speakers have been using it as a productive tool for centuries, which is why new adjectives can be given a noun form almost automatically.

Synonyms: thinness, weakness, wateriness, weak concentration, rarity

Antonyms: concentration, strength, thickness, density, potency