SEVERE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does severe mean? 

• SEVERE (adjective)
  The adjective SEVERE has 6 senses:

1. intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality

2. very strong or vigorous

3. severely simple

4. unsparing and uncompromising in discipline or judgment

5. causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm

6. very bad in degree or extent

  Familiarity information: SEVERE used as an adjective is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SEVERE (adjective)

Comparative: severer   
Superlative: severest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality

Synonyms:

severe; terrible; wicked

Context example:

a wicked cough

Similar:

intense (possessing or displaying a distinctive feature to a heightened degree)

Derivation:

severeness (something hard to endure)

severeness; severity (used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Very strong or vigorous

Synonyms:

hard; knockout; severe

Context example:

a severe blow

Similar:

strong (having strength or power greater than average or expected)

Derivation:

severeness (used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Severely simple

Synonyms:

austere; severe; stark; stern

Context example:

a stark interior

Similar:

plain (not elaborate or elaborated; simple)

Derivation:

severeness (extreme plainness)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Unsparing and uncompromising in discipline or judgment

Synonyms:

severe; spartan

Context example:

a Spartan upbringing

Similar:

nonindulgent; strict (characterized by strictness, severity, or restraint)

Derivation:

severeness; severity (excessive sternness)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm

Synonyms:

dangerous; grave; grievous; life-threatening; serious; severe

Context example:

a life-threatening disease

Similar:

critical (being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency)

Derivation:

severeness (used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Very bad in degree or extent

Context example:

the house suffered severe damage

Similar:

bad (having undesirable or negative qualities)

Derivation:

severeness; severity (used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather)

 Context examples 

Daily he found it a severer strain to be decent with people.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“Watson would tell you that I have only just recovered from a severe illness,” he explained.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Still, I must say, they are very severe, sir: both as to this life and the next.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She was awakened by a shock, so sudden and severe that if Dorothy had not been lying on the soft bed she might have been hurt.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

They confirmed that transplantation of the bacteria caused severe liver disease in mice.

(Bacteriophage therapy may ease severity of alcoholic hepatitis, National Institutes of Health)

However, more than half of the coastal countries studied showed moderate-to-severe nutrient deficiencies.

(Fairer fish trade could fix nutrient deficiencies in coastal countries, SciDev.Net)

After acute (short-term) damage hepatocytes are able to regenerate, but after more severe injury they are not.

(Regeneration mechanism discovered in mice could provide target for drugs to combat chronic liver disease, University of Cambridge)

Captain Harville had never been in good health since a severe wound which he received two years before, and Captain Wentworth's anxiety to see him had determined him to go immediately to Lyme.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

When the hour of departure drew near, the maternal anxiety of Mrs. Morland will be naturally supposed to be most severe.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

But her uncle's anger gave her the severest pain of all.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)