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View synonyms for severe

severe

[ suh-veer ]

adjective

, se·ver·er, se·ver·est.
  1. harsh; unnecessarily extreme:

    severe criticism; severe laws.

    Antonyms: tolerant, lax, lenient

  2. serious or stern in manner or appearance:

    a severe face.

    Synonyms: grim, forbidding, dour, austere, punitive, draconian, rigorous, rigid, heavy-handed, strict

    Antonyms: temperate, mild, benign, gentle

  3. threatening a seriously bad outcome or involving serious issues; grave:

    a severe illness.

  4. rigidly restrained in style, taste, manner, etc.; simple, plain, or austere.

    Synonyms: stark, serious, spartan

  5. causing discomfort or distress by extreme character or conditions, as weather, cold, or heat; unpleasantly violent, as rain or wind, or a blow or shock.
  6. difficult to endure, perform, fulfill, etc.:

    a severe test of his powers.

  7. rigidly exact, accurate, or methodical:

    severe standards.

    Synonyms: exacting, demanding

    Antonyms: facile, effortless, easy



severe

/ sɪˈvɪə; sɪˈvɛrɪtɪ /

adjective

  1. rigorous or harsh in the treatment of others; strict

    a severe parent

  2. serious in appearance or manner; stern
  3. critical or dangerous

    a severe illness

  4. causing misery or discomfort by its harshness

    severe weather

  5. strictly restrained in appearance; austere

    a severe way of dressing

  6. hard to endure, perform, or accomplish

    a severe test

  7. rigidly precise or exact
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • seˈverely, adverb
  • seˈvereness, noun
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Other Words From

  • se·vere·ly adverb
  • se·vere·ness noun
  • o·ver·se·vere adjective
  • o·ver·se·vere·ness noun
  • su·per·se·vere adjective
  • su·per·se·vere·ness noun
  • un·se·vere adjective
  • un·se·vere·ness noun
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Word History and Origins

Origin of severe1

First recorded in 1540–50; from Latin sevērus, or back formation from severity
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Word History and Origins

Origin of severe1

C16: from Latin sevērus
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Synonym Study

See stern 1.
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Example Sentences

The coroner told the New York Times that the injuries were so severe that Taylor likely died in less than a minute.

From Vox

The Senate’s biases are largely unintentional but even more severe.

From Vox

Thanks to AMP’s pre-rendering combined with some severe design limitations, AMP webpages often really do win in page speed, even if not in ranking as is.

The company switched to household size-based billing in Monterey during a severe water shortage and that kind of issue didn’t crop up for San Diego area customers, Tilden said.

This problem is the most severe and also the easiest to understand.

Eating disorders, researchers believed, were essentially more severe forms of disordered eating.

Aviation experts across the world experienced severe jaw dropping at this news.

And that realization comes at the cost of severe, public embarrassment for many, including the victim/proposed.

This concern ceased after the Spanish warned of severe punitive measures on the family members of suicides.

“That was the longest, most severe S/M session I have experienced in my thirty-four-year tenure,” she writes in the book.

And a severe, embittered struggle then took place in a heart that seemed strangely divided against itself.

These dreamy, Madonna-like beauties are the result of the most severe and protracted study.

She is, however, a severe critic of her own work and is greatly disturbed by indiscriminating praise.

It occurs in well-marked cases of pernicious anemia and leukemia, and, much less commonly, in very severe symptomatic anemias.

Pathologically, normoblasts occur in severe symptomatic anemia, leukemia, and pernicious anemia.

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severance taxsevere combined immune deficiency