markedness
/ˈmɑrktnəs/
noun
- The quality of being noticeable or obvious.
- In the painting, the markedness of the bright colors draws your eye immediately.
- The markedness of the difference between the two candidates was clear to all voters.
- The markedness of her accent made it easy to guess where she was from.
- In linguistics, the property of a word or feature being less basic or more specific than another (e.g., 'lioness' is marked compared to 'lion').
- Linguists study markedness to understand which forms are considered the default.
- The markedness of the word 'actress' has decreased as gender-neutral terms become more common.
- In many languages, the plural form shows markedness compared to the singular.