Associations to the word «Severity»

Wiktionary

SEVERITY, noun. The state of being severe.
SEVERITY, noun. The degree of something undesirable; badness or seriousness.

Dictionary definition

SEVERITY, noun. Used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather.
SEVERITY, noun. Something hard to endure; "the asperity of northern winters".
SEVERITY, noun. Extreme plainness.
SEVERITY, noun. Excessive sternness; "severity of character"; "the harshness of his punishment was inhuman"; "the rigors of boot camp".

Wise words

Words are always getting conventionalized to some secondary meaning. It is one of the works of poetry to take the truants in custody and bring them back to their right senses.
William Butler Yeats