Objectivity is judging a thing as it is, with your own feelings and interests kept out of it. A referee who calls the foul against the club she used to play for, a reporter covering the party she votes for: that effort is objectivity.
It shows up most as something people demand or doubt, as in the objectivity of the press or an inquiry conducted with complete objectivity. The opposite is subjectivity, and the near enemy is bias, which is exactly what objectivity is meant to keep out. Note that it is a quality rather than an act, so you show objectivity, maintain it or lose it, but you never do an objectivity. Philosophy uses the word in a harder sense, where the objectivity of a fact is its holding true whether or not anyone believes it. The adjective is objective, which is also a noun meaning a goal, and the two meanings sit side by side without touching.
1nounobjectivityThe ability to judge something without letting your own feelings or interests affect the result.~75%
“The panel was chosen for its objectivity.”
2nounqualityThe quality of being true independently of what anyone thinks or feels.~25%
“The debate turned on whether moral claims have any objectivity at all.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 9 sentences found in the wild and placed 8 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
objectivity is a quality of judgement.
From objective + -ity.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA