cleanliness

cleanliness — noun

1. the condition of being without dirt, and the steady practice of removing it from

1.nounB1
Definition

the condition of being without dirt, and the steady practice of removing it from yourself and your surroundings.

Example

The hotel inspector checked the bathroom for cleanliness before approving the room for guests.

check + for + cleanliness: pattern for inspection contexts

Priya reminded her son that cleanliness of his hands helps prevent illness at school.

cleanliness + possessive noun: cleanliness of [body part]

Common collocations
  • maintain cleanliness
  • ensure cleanliness
  • check for cleanliness
  • lack of cleanliness
  • standard of cleanliness
  • strict cleanliness
  • scrupulous cleanliness
  • personal cleanliness
Synonyms
  • hygiene

    more medical or scientific — hygiene focuses on practices that prevent disease rather than general tidiness

  • neatness

    emphasises order and arrangement, not necessarily freedom from dirt

  • tidiness

    similar to neatness; refers to organised appearance more than actual cleanness

Antonyms
  • dirtiness

    direct opposite; the state of being covered with dirt

  • filth

    stronger, more disgust-associated opposite; extreme dirtiness

Grammar Patterns

cleanliness + verb (singular)

maintain / ensure / check + cleanliness

Usage Note

Uncountable — never used with 'a' or in plural form. Frequently appears with verbs like maintain, ensure, check, and promote. The adjective form is clean; the related noun cleanliness emphasizes the ongoing state or practice rather than a single instance.

Common Mistakes

The cleanliness of the rooms are important.
The cleanliness of the rooms is important.
cleanliness is uncountable and takes a singular verb even when followed by a plural noun.
I appreciate your cleanlinesses.
I appreciate your cleanliness.
there is no plural form of this noun.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

While all four words relate to freedom from unwanted elements, they occupy different domains. Cleanliness is the broad, everyday term for being free of dirt — used for hands, homes, kitchens, and public spaces. Hygiene specifically refers to practices that maintain health through cleanliness, such as hand-washing and food-safety routines; it has a stronger medical or scientific tone. Sanitation deals with the systems that keep communities clean — waste disposal, sewage treatment, and water purification — and is rarely used for personal habits. Purity goes a step further, often implying freedom from any contaminating substance (chemical or moral), making it more abstract and less about everyday scrubbing. Neatness overlaps with cleanliness only partially: a desk can be neat but dusty, or clean but messy. Use cleanliness when the focus is on freedom from dirt itself; use hygiene for health-related routines; use sanitation for infrastructure; and use purity only when discussing total absence of contaminants.

hygiene ↗sanitation ↗purityneatness

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • standard of cleanliness
  • lack of cleanliness
  • level of cleanliness

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

Cleanliness comes from the adjective clean (from Old English clǣne, meaning 'free from dirt') combined with the suffix -liness, which turns an adjective into a noun meaning 'the quality or state of being.' The word has been in English since Old English times as clǣnnes, with the modern spelling emerging in Middle English as clenlinesse. The proverb 'Cleanliness is next to godliness' dates from the late 16th century and helped cement the word's moral as well as physical meaning.