severe
Other forms: severest; severer
Whether you're talking about a punishment, the weather, or how bad your flu is, severe indicates that it's at the limit of the spectrum.
The austerity of a word like severe serves many purposes. The common usage is to describe tough or painful stuff, like icy snowstorms, merciless punishments, or grim conditions (e.g., a severe depression). If things are severe, they're serious. Severe could also describe a person's haircut if it's brutally short and angular, or their wardrobe if it tends to be all black with no flourishes.
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very harsh or strict, especially when dealing with others“"a parent severe to the pitch of hostility"- H.G.Wells”“a hefty six-footer with a rather severe mien”synonyms: spartan
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very strong or vigorous
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severely simple
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very bad in degree or extent“a severe worldwide depression”“the house suffered severe damage”synonyms:badhaving undesirable or negative qualities
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intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality
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causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm
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Vocabulary lists containing severe
On the SAT, all of the Reading Test questions are multiple choice and are based on reading passages that may be taken from literature, science, the social sciences, or a U.S. founding document (or a text inspired by such a document). Many of the reading comprehension questions meant to assess a student’s understanding of those passages will require students to choose words that best describe the writer’s tone or point of view, words like the 25 words you see on this list. Learn them here so when you see them in an SAT answer choice, you’ll know what they mean! Following our Roadmap to the SAT? Head back to see what else you should be learning this week.
On his eleventh birthday, orphan Harry Potter learns the shocking truth: he's a wizard about to begin his education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Context is king — that’s the lesson you need to internalize as you begin preparing for the vocabulary questions on the SAT. We have identified this pool of 200 words that cut across the disciplines and lend themselves well to context-dependent interpretation. As you learn this list on Vocabulary.com, you will have to rely on context clues in order to determine each word’s meaning in particular sentences. This is the same type of thinking you will need to develop in order to succeed on the SAT! Following our Roadmap to the SAT? Head back to see what else you should be learning this week.