WordWeb Online

1. Used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather
   - badness, severeness
    
2. The quality of being hard to endure, uninviting or formidable
   "the severity of northern winters";
   - asperity, grimness, hardship, rigor [US], rigour [Brit, Cdn], severeness, rigorousness, rigourousness [Brit, non-standard]
    
3. Extreme plainness
   - austereness, severeness
    
4. Excessive sternness
   "severity of character";
   - severeness, harshness, rigor [US], rigour [Brit, Cdn], rigorousness, rigourousness [Brit, non-standard], inclemency, hardness, stiffness

Derived forms: severities

Type of: difficultness, difficulty, fix [informal], hole [informal], intensity, intensiveness, jam [informal], kettle of fish [informal], mess [informal], muddle [informal], pickle [informal], plainness, sternness, strictness

Encyclopedia: Severity