nearnessEnglishOxford American Thesaurusnearness noun 1 the town's geographical nearness to Rome: closeness, proximity, propinquity, adjacency; accessibility, handiness; rare contiguity, contiguousness, vicinity, vicinage. 2 the nearness of death focuses the mind: imminence, closeness, immediacy, immediateness. 3 a marriage is also void on the ground of nearness of relationship: consanguinity, closeness.