SEVERITY

n. 1 strictness, harshness, rigour, rigorousness, austerity, hardness, flintiness, inexorability, inexorableness, stringency, oppression, oppressiveness, rigidity, inflexibility, relentlessness, obduracy, obdurateness, pitilessness, mercilessness, cold-bloodedness, abusiveness, cruelty, brutality, meanness, savagery, inhumanity, beastliness, ruthlessness, despotism, tyranny, fastidiousness, exigency The severity of the discipline was almost unbearable 2 coldness, aloofness, sternness, gravity, grimness, frigidity, austerity, solemnity The severity of his look froze me to the spot 3 dangerousness, acuteness, seriousness, gravity, ferocity, fierceness, virulence, violence, intensity The severity of the fits has diminished since we put the patient on new medication 4 stringency, punitiveness, punishment, harshness, onerousness, grievousness, painfulness, burdensomeness, oppressiveness The severity of the sentence is not inappropriate to the heinousness of the crime 5 harshness, inclemency, violence, storminess, intensity, ferocity, fierceness, fury, furiousness, tempestuousness The severity of the weather has interfered with our maintenance of the electrical power lines 6 plainness, starkness, austerity, asceticism, bareness, modesty, simplicity, primitiveness, spareness, sparseness, monasticism, crudeness The severity of the cells at the monastery was equalled by the austerity of the regimen