1. the quality of being artificially formal or unnatural in manner, speech, or writing

Examples

• The stiltedness of his speech made the audience uncomfortable.
• She tried to overcome the stiltedness in her writing by using more conversational language.
• The actor’s performance suffered from a noticeable stiltedness that detracted from the character.
• The stiltedness of the formal dinner conversation made everyone eager to leave.
• His attempts at humor were marred by their stiltedness and poor timing.
• The translation’s stiltedness made the original text’s beauty difficult to appreciate.