Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The state or quality of being good.
  • noun The beneficial or nutritious part.
  • interjection Used to express mild surprise.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or quality of being good, in any sense; excellence; purity; virtue; grace; benevolence.
  • noun In exclamatory use, a term of emphasis; “gracious”: as, my goodness! no; for goodness' sake, tell me what it is.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality of being good in any of its various senses; excellence; virtue; kindness; benevolence

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable The state or characteristic of being good.
  • noun countable The good, nutritional, healthy part or content of something.
  • noun uncountable, euphemistic God.
  • noun Christianity The moral qualities which constitute Christian excellence; moral virtue.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun that which is pleasing or valuable or useful
  • noun moral excellence or admirableness

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

good +‎ -ness

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Examples

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  • actions, all living things

    July 22, 2009