severity
/sɪˈvɛrɪti
/noun [mass noun]
The fact or condition of being severe: sentences should reflect the severity of the crime hay fever symptoms vary in severity she stared at me with mock severity...
- After two or three days of illness, pains of extraordinary severity develop.
- Other measures will have to be used depending on the severity and type of problem.
- Magistrates told Lawrence that the severity of the offences could warrant a custodial term.
Synonyms
acuteness, seriousness, gravity, graveness, severeness, grievousness, extremity;
danger, dangerousness
strength, intensity, ferocity, fierceness, violence, power, powerfulness, force, forcefulness
harshness, severeness, cold, coldness, bleakness, extremity
harshness, strictness, hardness, sternness, toughness, rigorousness, rigour, stringency, inflexibility, relentlessness, pitilessness, ruthlessness;
brutality, inhumanity, cruelty, savagery
sternness, dourness, grimness, sombreness, unfriendliness, graveness, gravity, soberness, seriousness, austereness, austerity, stiffness, flintiness, stoniness, steeliness;
coldness, frostiness, iciness, frigidity
plainness, simplicity, restraint, lack of adornment, lack of decoration, lack of ornament, lack of embellishment, austerity, spareness, starkness;
functionalism
