noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The property of being severe. uncountable, usually

   "Everyone was surprised by the severeness of the sentence the judge imposed."

2. 2
   excessive sternness wordnet
3. 3
   extreme plainness wordnet
4. 4
   something hard to endure wordnet
5. 5
   used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

severityasperityasperityausterenessausterenessbadness

Example

More examples

"Everyone was surprised by the severeness of the sentence the judge imposed."

Etymology

From severe + -ness.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.