2 definitions found
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 1.6 [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; "the severity of his punishment was
inhuman" [syn: {harshness}, {inclemency}, {hardness}, {stiffness}]
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Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
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