noisomeness


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noi·some

 (noi′səm)
adj.
1. Offensive to the point of arousing disgust; foul: a noisome odor.
2. Harmful or dangerous: noisome fumes.

[Middle English noiesom : noie, harm (short for anoi, annoyance, from Old French, from anoier, to annoy; see annoy) + -som, adj. suff.; see -some1.]

noi′some·ly adv.
noi′some·ness n.
Usage Note: People sometimes assume that noisome means "noisy," because the two words sound similar. But in our 2011 survey, 89% of the Usage Panel found the sentence We could barely hear each other with the noisome helicopter overhead to be unacceptable. If you use noisome as a synonym for noisy, there's a good chance that others will misinterpret your words and think you're describing someone or something as being offensive or harmful.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.noisomeness - the quality of being noxious
unwholesomeness, morbidness, morbidity - the quality of being unhealthful and generally bad for you
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
The eloquent man was so sure of his ground and auditors--seemed so confident in his strength--so little like a doubting giant--that it was long before Beauchampe could discover that he was a mere wind-bag, a bloated vessel of impure air that, becoming fixed air through a natural process, at length explodes and breaks forth with a violence duly proportioned to its noisomeness." (4) Whitman's poetry, Centre College Magazine warns its readers, is equally full of "balderdash" and must be approached critically in order to expose Whitman for what he is, "a bloated vessel of impure air." The review is transcribed below in full:
Their activities had prompted London's husting court to respond to a number of complaints about the "noisomeness arising from the butchers ...