roughness
rough·ness/ˈɹʌf.nəs/noun
roughness is spelled R-O-U-G-H-N-E-S-S: 9 letters and 2 syllables (rough·ness). It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,565th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, roughness means “The property of being rough, coarseness” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of roughness is roughnesses.
How many letters and syllables are in roughness?
| Letters | 9: R-O-U-G-H-N-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: rough·ness |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 36,565th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is roughness?
Roughness appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,565th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce roughness?
- US /ˈɹʌf.nəs/
- US /ˈɹʌf.nʌs/
- Australia /ˈɹɐf.nəs/
Roughness has 2 syllables, split rough·ness in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-roughness.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of roughness
- roughnesses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does roughness mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The property of being rough, coarseness.
The roughness of the road made me wonder if my car would fall apart.
- 2
Something that is rough; a rough spot.
- 3
USRoughage; coarse fodder.
- 4
ScotlandAbundance, especially of food.
- 5
A measure of how rough something is, such as a surface
The surface roughness was low.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Roughness in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the property of being rough:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does roughness come from?
Inherited from Middle English roughnes /roughnesse. By surface analysis, rough + -ness. Compare Old English hrēohnes (“roughness”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).