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Noun: sternness  sturn-nus
  1. The quality (as of scenery) being grim and gloomy and forbidding
    "the sternness of his surroundings made him uncomfortable"
     
  2. Uncompromising resolution
    - strictness

Derived forms: sternnesses

See also: stern

Type of: asperity, grimness, hardship, restrictiveness, rigor [US], rigorousness, rigour [Brit, Cdn], rigourousness [Brit, non-standard], severeness, severity, unpermissiveness

Nearest

Stern
stern chaser
Sterna
Sterna hirundo
sternal
Sterne
Sterninae
sternite
sternly
sternmost
sternness
sternocleido mastoideus
sternocleidomastoid
sternocleidomastoid muscle
sternocleidomastoid vein
Sternotherus
sternpost
sternum
sternutation
sternutative
sternutator