Word Meanings - SEVERITY - Book Publishers vocabulary database

The quality or state of being severe. Specifically: -- 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,

Additional info about word: SEVERITY

The quality or state of being severe. Specifically: -- 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. 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. Harshness; cruel treatment; sharpness of punishment; as, severity practiced on prisoners of war. Exactness; rigorousness; strictness; as, the severity of a test. Confining myself to the severity of truth. Dryden.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of SEVERITY)

• Asperity
• Acerbity
• harshness
• acrimony
• bitterness
• sharpness
• tartness
• sourness
• roughness
• moroseness
• severity
• crabbedness

Related words: (words related to SEVERITY)

• MOROSENESS
  Sourness of temper; sulenness. Learn good humor, never to oppose without just reason; abate some degrees of pride and moroseness. I. Watts. Note: Moroseness is not precisely peevishness or fretfulness, though often accompained with it. It denotes
• TARTNESS
  The quality or state of being tart. Syn. -- Acrimony; sourness; keenness; poignancy; severity; asperity; acerbity; harshness. See Acrimony.
• SHARPNESS
  The quality or condition of being sharp; keenness; acuteness.
• ROUGHNESS
  The quality or state of being rough.
• SOURNESS
  The quality or state of being sour.
• HARSHNESS
  The quality or state of being harsh. O, she is Ten times more gentle than her father 's crabbed, And he's composed of harshness. Shak. 'Tis not enough no harshness gives offense, The sound must seem an echo to the sense. Pope. Syn. -- Acrimony;
• ACERBITY
  1. Sourness of taste, with bitterness and astringency, like that of unripe fruit. 2. Harshness, bitterness, or severity; as, acerbity of temper, of language, of pain. Barrow.
• BITTERNESS
  1. The quality or state of being bitter, sharp, or acrid, in either a literal or figurative sense; implacableness; resentfulness; severity; keenness of reproach or sarcasm; deep distress, grief, or vexation of mind. The lip that curls
• ASPERITY
  1. Roughness of surface; unevenness; -- opposed to smoothness. "The asperities of dry bodies." Boyle. 2. Roughness or harshness of sound; that quality which grates upon the ear; raucity. 3. Roughness to the taste; sourness; tartness.
• SEVERITY
  The quality or state of being severe. Specifically: -- 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,
• ACRIMONY
  1. A quality of bodies which corrodes or destroys others; also, a harsh or biting sharpness; as, the acrimony of the juices of certain plants. Bacon. 2. Sharpness or severity, as of language or temper; irritating bitterness of disposition or
• THOROUGHNESS
  The quality or state of being thorough; completeness.