severe

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adjective

1. Rigorous and unsparing in treating others: demanding, exacting, hard, harsh, rigid, stern, strict, tough, unyielding. See easy/hard.
2. Cold and forbidding: austere, bleak, dour, grim, hard, harsh, stark. See attitude/good attitude/bad attitude/neutral attitude, hot/cold/lukewarm.
3. Causing sharp, often prolonged discomfort: bitter, brutal, hard, harsh, rough. See comfort/discomfort.
4. Conveying great physical force: hard, heavy, hefty, powerful. See big/small/amount.
5. Having great consequence or weight: earnest¹, grave², heavy, momentous, serious, weighty. See important/unimportant.
6. Causing or marked by danger or pain, for example: dangerous, grave², grievous, serious. See help/harm/harmless.
7. Requiring great or extreme bodily, mental, or spiritual strength: arduous, backbreaking, burdensome, demanding, difficult, effortful, exacting, exigent, formidable, hard, heavy, laborious, onerous, oppressive, rigorous, rough, taxing, tough, trying, weighty. See heavy/light.

adj

Definition: difficult, harsh
Antonyms: calm, easy, facile, mild, simple, temperate

adj

Definition: uncompromising, stern
Antonyms: amenable, compromising, easy-going, friendly, gentle, willing

Of an extreme degree, beyond endurance. For example, in determining whether a plaintiff has succeeded in showing severe emotional distress, both the intensity and duration of the emotional distress suffered must be considered in determining whether the distress is of such substantial quantity or enduring quality that “no reasonable person in a civilized society should be expected to endure it.”

IN BRIEF: To a serious degree. Also: Causing great damage or hardship.

An act of violence against nature should be judged as severely as that against society or another person. — Dr. Michael W. Fox

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A clinical qualifier that describes a disease that is so severe that it dominates all other activities.

• s. combined immune deficiency disease (SCID) (syndrome) — see combined immune deficiency syndrome (disease).

For a list of words related to severe, see:

• Sad, Serious, Pessimistic, or Discontented
• Troublesome, Negative, Irresponsible, or Unpleasant

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See words rhyming with "severe."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Severe.

Common misspelling(s) of severely

• severley

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - alvorlig, streng, hård, barsk, voldsom

Nederlands (Dutch)
streng, strikt, ernstig

Français (French)
adj. - grave, rigoureux, violent, lourd, sévère, austère

Deutsch (German)
adj. - rauh, streng, hart, stark, schwer

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - αυστηρός, δριμύς, τραχύς, απέριττος

Italiano (Italian)
inclemente, severo

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - severo, austero, violento

Русский (Russian)
строгий, требовательный, жесткий, простой (о стиле), тщательный, суровый (о климате), серьезный, трудный, ожесточенный, саркастический

Español (Spanish)
adj. - crudo, áspero, severo, estricto, riguroso

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - sträng, svår, hård, skarp, kännbar, bister

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
严厉的, 剧烈的, 严格的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 嚴厲的, 劇烈的, 嚴格的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 엄한, 맹렬한, 견디기 어려운

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 厳しい, 苛酷な, ひどい, 手厳しい, 困難な, 深刻な, 激烈な, 簡素な

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) متجهم, صارم‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮חמור, קשה, רציני, נוקשה, מקפיד, חריף, נוקב, פשוט‬

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