inwardness

1 the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience; "the gist of the prosecutor's argument"; "the heart and soul of the Republican Party"; "the nub of the story" [syn: kernel, substance, core, center, essence, gist, heart, heart and soul, marrow, meat, nub, pith, sum, nitty-gritty]

2 preoccupation especially with one's attitudes and ethical or ideological values; "the sensitiveness of James's characters, their seeming inwardness"; "Socrates' inwardness, integrity, and inquisitiveness" [ant: outwardness]

3 the quality or state of being inward or internal; "the inwardness of the body's organs" [ant: outwardness]

4 preoccupation with what concerns human inner nature (especially ethical or ideological values); "Socrates' inwardness, integrity, and inquisitiveness"- H.R.Finch [ant: outwardness]

depth, essentiality, experience, familiarity, fundamentality, immanence, inbeing, indigenousness, indwelling, inherence, innateness, innerness, inness, interiority, internality, internalization, intimacy, intrinsicality, introversion, nonobjectivity, subjectivity