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tardiness meaning and examples

2025-09-08

Meaning

Tardiness means the quality or habit of being late, especially habitually. It refers to the failure to arrive on time or meet deadlines promptly.

Grammar and Usage

  • Part of speech: Noun (uncountable, sometimes countable in specific contexts).
  • Used to describe lateness in general or repeated lateness as a character trait.
  • Common in formal or professional contexts, such as schools or workplaces.

Typical sentence structures:

  • tardiness in doing sth
  • tardiness to work/class
  • be penalized for tardiness

Common Phrases

  • habitual tardiness
  • excessive tardiness
  • tardiness policy
  • excuse for tardiness
  • penalize for tardiness

Collocations

  • Adjectives + tardiness: excessive tardiness, habitual tardiness, chronic tardiness
  • Verbs + tardiness: excuse tardiness, punish tardiness, reduce tardiness, discourage tardiness
  • Prepositions: tardiness in arriving, tardiness to class

Examples

  1. His constant tardiness eventually cost him his job.
  2. The teacher warned that tardiness would affect students’ grades.
  3. She apologized for her tardiness to the meeting.
  4. A company may have strict rules against tardiness.
  5. The manager overlooked his tardiness because of his excellent performance.
  6. Tardiness in submitting assignments can result in penalties.
  7. Despite his tardiness, he managed to finish the project on time.
  8. They introduced flexible hours to reduce employee tardiness.
  • lateness
  • delay
  • unpunctuality

Antonym

  • punctuality
  • promptness