severe

adjective

1)

severe injuries

Syn:

acute, very bad, serious, grave, critical, dreadful, terrible, awful; dangerous, parlous, life-threatening; formal grievous

Ant:

minor, negligible

2)

severe storms

Syn:

fierce, violent, strong, powerful, intense; tempestuous, turbulent

Ant:

gentle

3)

a severe winter

Syn:

harsh, bitter, cold, bleak, freezing, icy, arctic, extreme; informal brutal

Ant:

mild

4)

a severe headache

Syn:

excruciating, agonizing, intense, dreadful, awful, terrible, unbearable, intolerable; informal splitting, pounding, screaming

Ant:

slight

5)

a severe test of their stamina

Syn:

difficult, demanding, tough, arduous, formidable, exacting, rigorous, punishing, onerous, grueling

Ant:

easy, simple

6)

severe criticism

Syn:

harsh, scathing, sharp, strong, fierce, savage, scorching, devastating, trenchant, caustic, biting, withering

Ant:

mild

7)

severe tax penalties

Syn:

extortionate, excessive, unreasonable, inordinate, outrageous, sky-high, harsh, stiff; punitive

8)

they received severe treatment

Syn:

harsh, stern, hard, inflexible, uncompromising, unrelenting, merciless, pitiless, ruthless, draconian, oppressive, repressive, punitive; brutal, cruel, savage

Ant:

lenient, lax

9)

his severe expression

Syn:

stern, dour, grim, forbidding, disapproving, unsmiling, unfriendly, somber, grave, serious, stony, steely; cold, frosty

Ant:

friendly, genial

10)

a severe style of architecture

Syn:

plain, simple, austere, unadorned, unembellished, unornamented, stark, spartan, ascetic; clinical, uncluttered

Ant:

fancy, ornate

••

severe, ascetic, austere, stern, strict, unmitigated

A storm, a hairdo, and a punishment may all be described as severe, which means harsh or uncompromising, without a hint of softness, mildness, levity, or indulgence. Austere, on the other hand, primarily applies to people, their habits, their way of life, and the environments they create; it implies coldness, stark simplicity, and restraint (an austere room with only a table and chair). Ascetic implies extreme self-denial and self-discipline, in some cases to the point of choosing what is painful or disagreeable (he had an ascetic approach to life and rejected all creature comforts). Strict literally means bound or stretched tight; in extended use, it means strenuously exact (a strict curfew; strict obedience). Stern combines harshness and authority with strictness or severity (a stern judge). Unmitigated means unmodified and unsoftened in any way (a streak of unmitigated bad luck).