Learn English – Word to describe the state of something being external or internal

adjectivessingle-word-requests

I'm looking for a word that refers to the state of being external or internal as a noun. Something like "ternality" or "ternalness" if those were words.

Example:

"The 'ternality' of the door was external."

Best Answer

If something is internal, it's obviously bounded by the limits of whatever it's contained within (a house, your body, etc.). If it's external it must be outside those limits (it's not bounded). So...

boundedness - the quality or state of being bounded (Merriam-Webster)


For an obviously "boolean" attribute like this, it's also perfectly natural to simply use a word identifying one of the two possible states. Just as we can refer to the truth of a statement (an "attribute" whose value can be either true or false), so we could refer to the...

internality - the quality or fact of being internal (in various senses) (OED)

...where the possible values of the boolean attribute are internal and external.