From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgoodnessgood‧ness /ˈɡʊdnəs/ ●●○ S3 noun [uncountable] 1 → my goodness!/goodness (gracious) me!2 → for goodness’ sake3 → goodness (only) knows4 being goodGOOD/MORAL the quality of being good the desire to see goodness and justice in the world5 best partHEALTHY the part of food which is good for your health All the goodness of an egg is in the yolk.6 → have the goodness to do something7 → out of the goodness of somebody’s heart
Examples from the Corpus
goodness• She had a wonderful combination of beauty and goodness.• The distinction between virtue and goodness was not understood in modern times.• Anne believes in the basic goodness of all people.• Walnuts add crunchy goodness to salads, soups, and desserts.• That errant thought, coming from goodness knew where, made her heart beat an erratic tattoo.• His goodness shines through his every action.• From an attitude of generosity, warm feeling and motherly goodness, she now had shifted into a mood of high hilarity.• Not a lot of domestic politics about, thank goodness!• And thank goodness the figure has been released in time for rotational planning prior to harvest.• And the politicians, thank goodness, have only so much money with which to rip each other to shreds.• Thank goodness she had not succumbed to the idea of having Alice live with her. 