inwardness
noun
in·ward·ness ˈin-wərd-nəs 
1
: internal quality or substance
2
: close acquaintance : familiarity
3
: fundamental nature : essence
4
: absorption in one's own mental or spiritual life
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web This inwardness is sometimes expressed through spirituality. 
Vogue, 30 May 2022 Veterans point to the conservatory’s cultural inwardness and intolerance of defectors as well as the leveraging of secrets, but also to Gifford’s frequent invocation of Scientology teachings. Gary Baum, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 May 2022 What remains most in one’s memory after an immersion in Keaton are the quiet, uncanny shots of him in seclusion, his sensitive face registering his own inwardness. Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2022 The new inwardness which is to be our choice which is out of absolute necessity the motive of my own choosing is really a declaration of the self and its power. Jarrett Earnest, The New York Review of Books, 17 Nov. 2021 The essence of her beauty, in recent years, is its inwardness. Susan Dominus Photographs By Joshua Kissi Styled By Ian Bradley Sasha Weiss Photographs By Collier Schorr Styled By Jay Massacret Megan O’grady Portrait By Mickalene Thomas And Racquel Chevremont Ligaya Mishan Photographs By Tina Barney, New York Times, 14 Oct. 2021 His starkly slow tempos — with the works running, in some cases, a minute or longer than usual — give these nocturnes a Satie-like inwardness. New York Times, 13 Aug. 2021 What the early monks and the Christian mystics who followed sought was union—an intense experience of inwardness that is glaringly absent in what many of us get from American Christianity today. Fred Bahnson, Harpers Magazine, 5 Jan. 2021 Kierkegaard’s concept of inwardness gives us this task in a very different form. Christopher Beha, Harper's Magazine, 27 Apr. 2020 See More
Vogue, 30 May 2022 Veterans point to the conservatory’s cultural inwardness and intolerance of defectors as well as the leveraging of secrets, but also to Gifford’s frequent invocation of Scientology teachings. Gary Baum, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 May 2022 What remains most in one’s memory after an immersion in Keaton are the quiet, uncanny shots of him in seclusion, his sensitive face registering his own inwardness. Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2022 The new inwardness which is to be our choice which is out of absolute necessity the motive of my own choosing is really a declaration of the self and its power. Jarrett Earnest, The New York Review of Books, 17 Nov. 2021 The essence of her beauty, in recent years, is its inwardness. Susan Dominus Photographs By Joshua Kissi Styled By Ian Bradley Sasha Weiss Photographs By Collier Schorr Styled By Jay Massacret Megan O’grady Portrait By Mickalene Thomas And Racquel Chevremont Ligaya Mishan Photographs By Tina Barney, New York Times, 14 Oct. 2021 His starkly slow tempos — with the works running, in some cases, a minute or longer than usual — give these nocturnes a Satie-like inwardness. New York Times, 13 Aug. 2021 What the early monks and the Christian mystics who followed sought was union—an intense experience of inwardness that is glaringly absent in what many of us get from American Christianity today. Fred Bahnson, Harpers Magazine, 5 Jan. 2021 Kierkegaard’s concept of inwardness gives us this task in a very different form. Christopher Beha, Harper's Magazine, 27 Apr. 2020 See More Word History
First Known Use
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1