severity

/sɪˈvɛrɪɾi/

/sɪˈvɛrɪti/

Other forms: severities

Severity is a plain, no-frills hardness––or the degree of hardness. You might talk about the severity of the northern winter, or the severity of your grandfather's discipline.

Severity, with its root in severe, has several nuances. It can mean a hardship, like war’s severity. It also refers to an extreme plainness. Think of the severity of Amish life: no phones, cars, or other modern technology. And you might use it to describe your math teacher’s manner: his severity is indicated by his short, clipped sentences, angry stare, and propensity to fail students without mercy.

Definitions of severity

1. noun

   excessive sternness
   “severity of character”

   synonyms: austerity, hardness, harshness, inclemency, rigor, rigorousness, rigour, rigourousness, severeness, stiffness

   type of:

   sternness, strictness

   uncompromising resolution
2. noun

   extreme plainness
   synonyms: austereness, austerity, severeness

   type of:

   plainness

   the appearance of being plain and unpretentious
3. noun

   something hard to endure
   synonyms: asperity, grimness, hardship, rigor, rigorousness, rigour, rigourousness, severeness

   types:

   sternness

   the quality (as of scenery) being grim and gloomy and forbidding

   type of:

   difficultness, difficulty

   the quality of being difficult
4. noun

   used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather
   synonyms: badness, severeness

   types:

   foulness, raininess

   (of weather) the badness of the weather

   distressfulness, seriousness

   the quality of arousing fear or distress

   type of:

   intensity, intensiveness

   high level or degree; the property of being intense