Rigour
//ˈɹɪɡə(ɹ)// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Severity or strictness. countable, uncountable
"And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour."
- 2 excessive sternness wordnet
- 3 Harshness, as of climate. countable, uncountable
- 4 something hard to endure wordnet
- 5 A trembling or shivering response. countable, uncountable
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 the quality of being valid and rigorous wordnet
- 7 Character of being unyielding or inflexible. countable, uncountable
- 8 Shrewd questioning. countable, uncountable
- 9 Higher level of difficulty. countable, uncountable
- 10 Misspelling of rigor (“rigor mortis”). British, alt-of, countable, misspelling, uncountable
Example
More examples"And the Lord said to him: I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of the rigour of them that are over the works."
Etymology
From Middle English rigour, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French rigor, from Latin rigor (“stiffness, rigidity, rigor, cold, harshness”), from rigere (“to be rigid”). Compare French rigueur.
Related phrases
More for "rigour"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.