Dryness is the state of lacking moisture or wetness. When your hands feel rough and flaky in winter, that's dryness from cold air removing moisture from your skin. When bread becomes stale and crumbly, it has lost its moisture and developed dryness.

Dryness affects different things in different ways. In climate, dryness means little rainfall: deserts are defined by their extreme dryness. Plants wilt and turn brown when soil dryness prevents their roots from getting water. In writing or speaking, dryness means being boring or lacking emotion: a dry lecture might be technically accurate but so dull that students struggle to pay attention.

Sometimes dryness is exactly what you want. Painters need dryness in the air so their work will dry properly. A towel's job is to create dryness by absorbing water. But too much dryness causes problems: parched earth cracks open, eyes become irritated, and wooden furniture can split.

The opposite of dryness is wetness or moisture. Many things work best with the right balance: too much moisture causes mold, but too much dryness makes things brittle and uncomfortable.