comeliness

[ kuhm-lee-nis ]

noun

1. the quality of being attractive or pleasing in appearance:

   Her friend, a middle-aged woman, had retained much of her youthful comeliness.

   In spite of their perceived lack of comeliness, ridgebacks are well known for their ability to hunt and guard.

2. the quality of being seemly or proper in behavior:

   The word in Arabic carries the meanings of virtue, beauty, goodness, comeliness, and “doing what is beautiful” all at once.

Word History and Origins

Origin of comeliness¹

comely ( def ) + -ness ( def )

Example Sentences

The Reedy Creek Improvement District, governed by a board hand-picked by Disney, kept the site in manicured comeliness for more than a half-century.

From Los Angeles Times

Ms. Surya smartly foregrounds all that comeliness and every so often folds in a long shot that turns the characters into doll-like figures, a downsizing that gestures toward a nature vs. culture dynamic, maybe.

From New York Times

The couple’s comeliness is incontestably part of their viral appeal.

From The New Yorker

Most dung fungi are *not* known for their, er, comeliness.

From Scientific American

He was startlingly like his father, a circumstance not adverse to his future comeliness as a man, but which made him a little portentous as a baby.

From Project Gutenberg