Definition of "inwardness" [in•ward•ness]

• Intimacy; familiarity. (noun)
• Preoccupation with one's own thoughts or feelings; introspection. (noun)
• The intrinsic or indispensable properties of something; essence. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "We are such inward secret creatures, that inwardness is the most amazing thing about us, even more amazing than our reason. but we cannot just walk into the cavern and look around."
• "In a way, John Ames, with his intense scholarship and inwardness, is a type of religious figure that crosses cultures."
• "I clearly remember the day it finally occurred to me that insects, animals and the like had "inwardness"--that they felt pain and fear the same way I did."