Meaning & use
messiness
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Meanings
noununcountable
The state of being dirty, untidy or disordered.
Grammar: Uncountable: not a messiness, but the messiness of the room.
Patterns
- the messiness of something
The messiness of his desk made it hard to find anything.
She apologized for the messiness of the kitchen after the party.
Children's art projects bring a certain amount of messiness.
noununcountablefigurative
The quality of being complicated, confusing or hard to sort out, especially where feelings or relationships are involved.
Grammar: Often followed by of and a noun like life or divorce.
Patterns
- the messiness of something
The novel captures the messiness of family life.
Lawyers warned them about the messiness of a long divorce.
He accepted the messiness of the early design process.
Common combinations
- the messiness of life
- The film shows the messiness of life honestly.
- embrace the messiness
- Good teachers embrace the messiness of learning.
- emotional messiness
- The story deals with emotional messiness after a breakup.
- avoid the messiness
- They signed a clear agreement to avoid the messiness of disputes later.
- a certain messiness
- There was a certain messiness in the way the plan was carried out.
Synonyms and how they differ
- untidiness
- Untidiness is limited to physical disorder, while messiness can also mean emotional or situational confusion.
- disorder
- Disorder is more formal and can describe whole systems, whereas messiness is more casual and often about everyday things.
- clutter
- Clutter is a pile of objects, but messiness is the general state, and might include dirt.
- chaos
- Chaos suggests total confusion and is stronger than messiness.
Opposites
Word family
Practice
The novel does not hide the ___ of ordinary family life.
Choose one answer.
Messiness is the noun that fits after the and before of. Message and messenger are real nouns but have different meanings, and messed is a verb form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “messiness”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.