interiority

noun in·te·ri·or·i·ty \ (ˌ)in-ˌtir-ē-ˈȯr-ə-tē , -ˈär- \

|Updated on: 17 Jun 2018

Definition of interiority

1 : interior quality or character

2 : inner life or substance : psychological existence

Recent Examples of interiority from the Web

What’s more, the fact that the mystery was medical only amplified the usual effect: To wonder what was wrong with the First Lady’s health is to think about her internal body, her interiority.

— rhonda garelick, The Cut, "Melania’s Recent Behavior Is Right Out of Hitchcock," 11 June 2018
Large claims about the interiority of human beings from a different time are not so easily proven.

— josephine livingstone, The New Republic, "Did Math Kill God?," 27 Apr. 2018
Her interiority was the key to the show, felt in those endless close-ups of Moss’s face, and in her narration.

— sophie gilbert, The Atlantic, "The Handmaid's Tale and the Suffering of Women," 25 Apr. 2018
The music works like interiority, translating the muddled speech of Chekhov’s play into the persistent feeling that is at the core of the work.

— josephine livingstone, The New Republic, "The First Great Film Adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull," 24 Apr. 2018
Working with a low budget that never becomes a hindrance, Mr. Perry uses exterior space to convey interiority, as when Alyssa speaks to Nick — who keeps his back to her — from across a room that feels like a vast, unpassable chasm.

— manohla dargis, New York Times, "Review: In ‘Golden Exits,’ Ties That Bind (and Cut Too)," 8 Feb. 2018
Vonnegut wasn’t going for interiority, character depth or musicality.

— jess walter, New York Times, "How Kurt Vonnegut Found His Voice and His Themes," 9 Oct. 2017
Their emotional interiority sits at a difficult and interesting place in our culture now, at a time when America is reassessing its relationship to the way that cops feel.

— josephine livingstone, New Republic, "Wind River Reveals the Tricky Politics of Feeling Bad for Cops," 22 Aug. 2017
Nuanced interiority gives way to action — sometimes, unnecessarily, in the third person.

— tÉa obreht, New York Times, "An Uncanny Cat, a Companionable Snake and Displaced Desire," 21 Apr. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'interiority.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.