Hypertext Webster Gateway: "severity"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Severity \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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
severity
n 1: used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or
weather [syn: {badness}]
2: something hard to endure; "the asperity of northern winters"
[syn: {asperity}, {grimness}, {hardship}, {rigor}, {rigour},
{rigorousness}]
3: excessive sternness; "severity of character"; "the harshness
of his punishment was inhuman"; "the rigors of boot camp"
[syn: {harshness}, {rigor}, {rigour}, {inclemency}, {hardness},
{stiffness}]
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