awkwardness

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,824 of 15,258neutral

Awkwardness is discomfort in a situation nobody knows how to handle. An awkwardness in the room, social awkwardness, break the awkwardness.

It is about the situation as much as any person, which is why it can settle on a whole room at once. English is unusually rich in words for it, and the pause after somebody says the wrong thing is the classic case.

Definitions of awkwardness

1nounawkwardnessDiscomfort in a situation nobody knows how to handle.B2+
“There was a moment of awkwardness when she realised she'd forgotten his name.”

awkwardness is a discomfort.

Where it comes from

From awkward + -ness.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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awkwardness in the wild

Lack of such skills can cause social awkwardness.
Social skills
Despite the awkwardness and pain of his condition, he would walk eight to ten miles a day to meet his customers.
Door to Door (film)
According to the film critic Paolo Mereghetti, the film is very ambitious and has a careful attention to detail but also has some awkwardness and a confusing plot.
The Amusements of Private Life
The artwork portrays a young girl preparing for bed, challenging norms by acknowledging her awkwardness and self-consciousness.
Girl Arranging Her Hair

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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