Definitions for: Severity

[n] excessive sternness; "severity of character"; "the harshness of his punishment was inhuman"; "the rigors of boot camp"
[n] something hard to endure; "the asperity of northern winters"
[n] used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather

Webster (1913) Definition: 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.

Synonyms: asperity, badness, grimness, hardness, hardship, harshness, inclemency, rigor, rigorousness, rigour, stiffness

See Also: difficultness, difficulty, distressfulness, intensity, intensiveness, seriousness, sternness, strictness

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