formidability

English

Etymology

formidable +‎ -ity

Noun

formidability (usually uncountable, plural formidabilities)

1. The state of being formidable.
   • 1890, Horace Walpole, Letters of Horace Walpole‎^[1]:

     A Mackintosh has been taken, who reduces their formidability, by being sent to raise two clans, and with orders, if they would not rise, at least to give out they had risen, for that three clans would leave the Pretender, unless joined by those two.

   • 2007 October 10, Roberta Smith, “Going the Way of All Flesh, Artistically”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     As Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted platinum skull has recently indicated, Death’s formidability often encourages extravagance. Mr. Fabre covers a skull in brilliantly colored beetle shells; Mr. Van Oost casts one in silver (with a hand poking its eyes out).