verecundity means the quality or state of being verecund; modesty. It carries an Arena rating of 1590, earned across 25 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, verecundity ranks #2,861 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #5,051 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #5,472 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #7,436 of 17,163 for Funniest Words.
Why “verecundity” is a great word
VERECUNDITY — [Noun] A shy, bashful, or reverential modesty. From verecund (meaning modest, shy, from Latin verecundus, meaning modest, bashful, from vereri, meaning to fear, respect) + the noun-forming suffix -ity. First attested in 1721 in a dictionary by Nathan Bailey. Unlike modesty, a general term for humility, or bashfulness, which denotes social timidity, verecundity implies a retreat born of awe as much as of self-consciousness. It is the lowered gaze of a novice before a master’s work, the hushed voice in a vaulted library, the instinctive step backward to let greatness pass first—a quiet, physical acknowledgment that some things command not just politeness, but a respectful fear.
Etymology
From verecund + -ity.
noun
- The quality or state of being verecund; modesty.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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