Adjacent Words

Severity definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SEVER'ITY, n. [L. sveritas.]
1. Harshness; rigor; austerity; want of mildness or indulgence; as the severity of a reprimand or reproof.
2. Rigor; extreme strictness; as the severity of discipline or government.
3. Excessive figor; extreme degree or amount. Severity of penalties or punishments often defeats the object by exciting pity.
4. Extremity; quality or power of distressing; as the severity of pain or anguish.
5. Extreme degree; as the severity of cold or heat.
6. Extreme coldness or inclemency; as the severity of the winter.
7. Harshness; cruel treatment; sharpness of punishment; as severity practiced on prisoners of war.
8. Exactness; rigor; niceness; as the severity of a test.
9. Strictness; rigid accuracy.
Confining myself to the severity of truth. Dryden.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather [syn: badness, severity, severeness]
2: something hard to endure; "the asperity of northern winters" [syn: asperity, grimness, hardship, rigor, rigour, severity, severeness, rigorousness, rigourousness]
3: extreme plainness [syn: austereness, severity, severeness]
4: excessive sternness; "severity of character"; "the harshness of his punishment was inhuman"; "the rigors of boot camp" [syn: severity, severeness, harshness, rigor, rigour, rigorousness, rigourousness, inclemency, hardness, stiffness]

Merriam Webster's

noun see severe

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Severity Se*ver"i*ty, n.; pl. Severities. [L. severitas: cf. F. s['e]v['e]rit['e].] The quality or state of being severe. Specifically: (a) Gravity or austerity; extreme strictness; rigor; harshness; as, the severity of a reprimand or a reproof; severity of discipline or government; severity of penalties. ``Strict age, and sour severity.'' --Milton. (b) The quality or power of distressing or paining; extreme degree; extremity; intensity; inclemency; as, the severity of pain or anguish; the severity of cold or heat; the severity of the winter. (c) Harshness; cruel treatment; sharpness of punishment; as, severity practiced on prisoners of war. (d) Exactness; rigorousness; strictness; as, the severity of a test. Confining myself to the severity of truth. --Dryden.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

see severe

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Sternness, harshness, rigor, austerity, gravity, strictness. 2. Strictness, exactness, accuracy. 3. Simplicity, plainness. 4. Sharpness, keenness, causticity, acrimony. 5. Extremity, afflictiveness, violence, keenness. 6. Harshness, cruel treatment. 7. Exactness, rigor, niceness, rigorousness.

Moby Thesaurus

Spartan simplicity, Spartanism, abruptness, absolute zero, absoluteness, abusiveness, accuracy, acerbity, acidity, acidulousness, acridity, acrimony, acuteness, aggressiveness, algidity, aloofness, animality, asceticism, asperity, astringency, atrocity, attention to fact, austerity, authoritarianism, baldness, barbarity, bareness, bearishness, beastliness, bite, bitingness, bitterness, bleakness, bloodlust, bluntness, boorishness, brashness, briskness, brusqueness, brusquerie, brutality, burdensomeness, candor, care for truth, causticity, chill, chilliness, churlishness, cold, coldness, common speech, cool, coolness, coolth, correctness, crispness, crudeness, cruelty, crustiness, cryogenics, cryology, curtness, cuttingness, decrease in temperature, delicacy, demandingness, despotism, destructiveness, directness, discipline, edge, elementarity, exactingness, exactitude, exactness, exigency, extremity, faithfulness, fastidiousness, faultlessness, ferociousness, ferocity, fidelity, fierceness, fineness, flawlessness, flintiness, force, frankness, freezing point, freshness, frigidity, frostiness, fundamentality, furiousness, fury, gelidity, gravity, grievousness, grimness, grip, gruffness, hardness, harshness, homespun, homogeneity, household words, iciness, impetuosity, inclemency, inexorability, inexorableness, inflexibility, inhumanity, inornateness, integrity, intense cold, intensity, keenness, leanness, literalism, literality, literalness, low temperature, malignity, mathematical precision, matter-of-factness, meanness, mercilessness, meticulousness, mindlessness, modesty, monasticism, monism, mordacity, mordancy, murderousness, nastiness, naturalness, niceness, nicety, nip, nippiness, obduracy, obdurateness, oneness, onerousness, openness, oppression, oppressiveness, painfulness, perfection, piquancy, pitilessness, plain English, plain speaking, plain speech, plain style, plain words, plainness, poignancy, point, preciseness, precision, primitiveness, prosaicness, prosiness, pungency, punishment, punitiveness, purity, rawness, refinement, regimentation, relentlessness, restrainedness, right, rightness, rigid discipline, rigidity, rigor, rigorousness, roughness, ruggedness, rustic style, ruthlessness, savagery, seriousness, sharp air, sharpness, shortness, simpleness, simplicity, singleness, soberness, solemnity, sourness, spareness, sparseness, starkness, sternness, sting, storminess, straightforwardness, strictness, stridency, stringency, subtlety, surliness, tartness, teeth, tempestuousness, terrorism, textualism, the letter, toughness, trenchancy, truculence, tyranny, unadorned style, unadornedness, unadulteration, unaffectedness, unelaborateness, unfanciness, unfussiness, ungentleness, uniformity, unimaginativeness, unity, unmixedness, unpoeticalness, unsophistication, vandalism, vehemence, venom, vernacular, viciousness, violence, virulence