WordWeb Online

1. The roughness of a substance that causes abrasions
   - abrasiveness, scratchiness
    
2. The quality of being unpleasant (harsh or rough or grating) to the senses
   - roughness
    
3. The quality of being cruel and causing tension or annoyance
   - cruelty, cruelness
    
4. Excessive sternness
   "the harshness of his punishment was inhuman"
   - severity, severeness, rigor [US], rigour [Brit, Cdn], rigorousness, rigourousness [Brit, non-standard], inclemency, hardness, stiffness

Derived forms: harshnesses

See also: harsh

Type of: malevolence, malevolency, malice, raggedness, roughness, sternness, strictness, unpleasantness

Encyclopedia: Harshness