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

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.
Noam Chomsky