sameness

From same + -ness.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈseɪmnəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: same‧ness

sameness (plural samenesses)

1. The quality of being the same; identity.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sameness

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXXIV, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 391:

     All of them agreed that the working-classes must be kept in their place; and all of them perceived that American Democracy did not imply any equality of wealth, but did demand a wholesome sameness of thought, dress, painting, morals, and vocabulary.

   • 1997, Thomas Mann, chapter XX, in John E. Woods, transl., Doctor Faustus, New York: Vintage, published 1999, page 182:

     However strange it may sound, it always seemed to me […] that Adrian's laughter-filled friendship with Schildknapp had something to do with the sameness of their eye color

2. The state of being equivalent; equality.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:equality

3. A tiring lack of variety; monotony.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:tedium

   • 1860, George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss‎^[1], Book IV, Chapter II:

     […] in the time when day follows day in dull, unexpectant sameness, and trial is a dreary routine,—it is then that despair threatens […]

   • 1892, Walt Whitman, “A Song of Joys”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, page 148:

     O to sail to sea in a ship! / To leave this steady unendurable land, / To leave the tiresome sameness of the streets, the sidewalks and the houses, / To leave you O you solid motionless land, and entering a ship, / To sail and sail and sail!