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What is the correct form to express the agnostic quality of something. The usual suffix -ness seems incorrect to me but I could not find a trustworthy reference to either confirm or deny this.

The only derived form I have encountered is the noun agnosticism

To describe my desired use case in an example:

This system comprises a portal and a service
The portal needs to be fully agnostic of the service
The agnosticness/agnosticity of the portal is crucial

Edit: as @sojourner correctly deduced, I should have stated this more clearly, my example is indeed meant to be used in the field of computer science.

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    I see no reason why "agnosticness" wouldn't be a valid construction.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Mar 9, 2015 at 3:29
  • skepticism, cynicism, doubtfulness, uncertainty, perplexity, indecisiveness, etc. - You can use any of these, they all express a quality of unknowing.
    – Prahlad Yeri
    Commented Mar 9, 2015 at 3:56
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    The lack of bias of the portal is crucial, the objectivity of the portal is crucial.
    – Adam Katz
    Commented Mar 9, 2015 at 4:41
  • The system COMPRISES a portal and a service. Not "is comprised of".
    – Brian Hitchcock
    Commented Mar 9, 2015 at 7:53
  • The standard term for this, in this context, is neutrality.
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Mar 9, 2015 at 10:28

2 Answers 2

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It seems that in computer science agnosticy (not agnosticness/agnosticity) is a proper word because agnostic as a noun in (computing) means a software component (or other entity) that is unaware or noncommittal regarding the specific nature of the components with which it interacts (Wiktionary).Thus:

This system is comprised of a portal and a service. The portal needs to be fully agnostic of the service. The agnosticy of the portal is crucial.

If however you want to use a close word, so to speak, the closest words I came across are: independency, autonomy and noncommittance.

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    I use the term "agnostic" when describing the "chuck" attached to many bicycle tire pumps. Such a chuck can automatically adapt between Schrader and Presta valves, without user intervention.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Mar 9, 2015 at 18:09
  • (link to example usage is dead)
    – wovano
    Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 10:33
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Agnosticism seems to be a valid word.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism ;This link has many references to back it up as well, one being: http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/4076;jsessionid=BC40E32960B872A2DEB9F581A837801A?redirectedFrom=agnosticism#eid

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    We already knew that.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Mar 9, 2015 at 18:06

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