FluentPlex

awkwardness

noun B2
  1. The state or quality of being awkward; clumsiness; unskillfulness. (uncountable)
  2. The quality of an embarrassing situation. (uncountable)

Plural awkwardnesses

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From the library

At one time she had almost resolved on applying to him, but the idea was checked by the awkwardness of the application, and at length wholly banished by the conviction that Mr.
Pride and Prejudice, p. 239 · B2
She knew but little of their meeting in Derbyshire, and therefore felt for the awkwardness which must attend her sister, in seeing him almost for the first time after receiving his explanatory letter.
Pride and Prejudice, p. 312 · B2
Elizabeth, feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances.
Pride and Prejudice, p. 344 · B2
She entered the apartment, and seeing near her stepmother the stranger of whom she had already heard so much, saluted him without any girlish awkwardness, or even lowering her eyes, and with an elegance that redoubled the count’s attention.
The Count of Monte Cristo, p. 516 · C1

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Words, meanings, pronunciations and translations from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); how common each word is from wordfreq. Made into this dictionary by FluentPlex.