severe

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See also: Severe and sévère

English

Etymology

From Middle French, from Latin severus (“severe, serious, grave in demeanor”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

severe (comparative severer or more severe, superlative severest or most severe)

  1. Very bad or intense.
    Antonyms: mild, en, minor
    • 2012 January, Donald Worster, “A Drier and Hotter Future”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 26 January 2012, page 70:
      Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force.
  2. Strict or harsh.
    Antonym: lenient
    a severe taskmaster
  3. Sober, plain in appearance, austere.
    a severe old maiden aunt
    severe clothing

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Further reading

Anagrams

Esperanto

Pronunciation

Adverb

severe

  1. severely

Related terms

Italian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /seˈvɛ.re/
  • Rhymes: -ɛre
  • Hyphenation: se‧vè‧re

Adjective

severe

  1. feminine plural of severo

Latin

Pronunciation

Adjective

sevēre

  1. vocative masculine singular of sevērus

Verb

sēvēre

  1. third-person plural perfect active indicative of serō

References

  • “severe”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “severe”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • severe in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Serbo-Croatian

Noun

severe (Cyrillic spelling севере)

  1. vocative singular of sever
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