Hardness

hardness
    n 1: the property of being rigid and resistant to pressure; not
         easily scratched; measured on Mohs scale [ant: {softness}]
    2: a quality of water that contains dissolved mineral salts that
       prevent soap from lathering; "the costs of reducing hardness
       depend on the relative amounts of calcium and magnesium
       compounds that are present"
    3: devoid of passion or feeling; hardheartedness [syn:
       {unfeelingness}, {callousness}, {callosity}, {hardness},
       {insensibility}]
    4: the quality of being difficult to do; "he assigned a series
       of problems of increasing hardness"; "the ruggedness of his
       exams caused half the class to fail" [syn: {hardness},
       {ruggedness}]
    5: excessive sternness; "severity of character"; "the harshness
       of his punishment was inhuman"; "the rigors of boot camp"
       [syn: {severity}, {severeness}, {harshness}, {rigor},
       {rigour}, {rigorousness}, {rigourousness}, {inclemency},
       {hardness}, {stiffness}]
    

Hardness \Hard"ness\, n. [AS. heardness.]
   1. The quality or state of being hard, literally or
      figuratively.
      [1913 Webster]

            The habit of authority also had given his manners
            some peremptory hardness.             --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. (Min.) The cohesion of the particles on the surface of a
      body, determined by its capacity to scratch another, or be
      itself scratched; -- measured among minerals on a scale of
      which diamond and talc form the extremes.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Chem.) The peculiar quality exhibited by water which has
      mineral salts dissolved in it. Such water forms an
      insoluble compound with soap, and is hence unfit for
      washing purposes.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: This quality is caused by the presence of calcium
         carbonate, causing temporary hardness which can be
         removed by boiling, or by calcium sulphate, causing
         permanent hardness which can not be so removed, but may
         be improved by the addition of sodium carbonate.
         [1913 Webster]
    

158 Moby Thesaurus words for "hardness":
      Philistinism, abstruseness, arduousness, armor, asperity,
      astringency, austerity, bothersomeness, burdensomeness, callosity,
      callousness, callus, closeness, cohesiveness, coldbloodedness,
      coldheartedness, coldness, compactness, complexity, complication,
      congestedness, congestion, consistence, consistency, crabbedness,
      crampedness, crowdedness, cruelty, deepness, denseness, density,
      difficultness, difficulty, durability, esoterica, firmness,
      flintiness, formidable defenses, fundamentalism, gluiness,
      grimness, hairiness, hard heart, hard shell, hardenedness,
      hardheartedness, hardiness, hardness of heart, hardship, harshness,
      heart of stone, heartlessness, impenetrability, impenitence,
      impenitentness, impermeability, imperviousness, impliability,
      imporosity, inclemency, incompressibility, induration,
      inexorability, inexorableness, inflexibility, infrangibility,
      insensitiveness, insensitivity, insolence, intricacy, inuredness,
      irrepentance, jammedness, knottiness, laboriousness, lastingness,
      leatherlikeness, mercilessness, nonrepentance, obduracy,
      obdurateness, obstinacy, onerousness, oppressiveness, orthodoxy,
      pitilessness, precisianism, profoundness, profundity, purism,
      puritanism, reconditeness, relative density, relentlessness,
      remorselessness, resistance, rhinoceros hide, rigidity, rigidness,
      rigor, rigorousness, ropiness, roughness, ruggedness, ruthlessness,
      seared conscience, severity, short shrift, solidity, solidness,
      soundness, specific gravity, spissitude, stability, stamina,
      staunchness, sternness, stiffness, stoniness, stoutness, strength,
      strenuousness, stringency, stringiness, stubbornness, sturdiness,
      temper, tenacity, tender mercies, thick skin, thickness,
      toilsomeness, toughness, troublesomeness, unabjectness,
      unbendingness, unbreakability, unbreakableness,
      uncompassionateness, uncompromisingness, uncontriteness, unfeeling,
      unfeelingness, unforgivingness, ungentleness, unmercifulness,
      unnaturalness, unrelentingness, unremorsefulness, unresponsiveness,
      unsympatheticness, unyieldingness, vicissitude, vigor, viscidity,
      viscosity, viscousness, vitality