STERNNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sternness mean? 

• STERNNESS (noun)
  The noun STERNNESS has 2 senses:

1. the quality (as of scenery) being grim and gloomy and forbidding

2. uncompromising resolution

  Familiarity information: STERNNESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STERNNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality (as of scenery) being grim and gloomy and forbidding

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

the sternness of his surroundings made him uncomfortable

Hypernyms ("sternness" is a kind of...):

asperity; grimness; hardship; rigor; rigorousness; rigour; rigourousness; severeness; severity (something hard to endure)

Derivation:

stern (severely simple)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Uncompromising resolution

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

sternness; strictness

Hypernyms ("sternness" is a kind of...):

restrictiveness; unpermissiveness (a lack of permissiveness or indulgence and a tendency to confine behavior within certain specified limits)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sternness"):

Puritanism (strictness and austerity in conduct and religion)

hardness; harshness; inclemency; rigor; rigorousness; rigour; rigourousness; severeness; severity; stiffness (excessive sternness)

 Context examples 

I like this day; I like that sky of steel; I like the sternness and stillness of the world under this frost.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Van Helsing's sternness was somewhat relieved by a look of perplexity.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Her manner was incurably gentle; and she was not aware how much it concealed the sternness of her purpose.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She was impelled to look at her husband, and she saw the sternness with which he watched her.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Mr. Spenlow seemed quite cowed by the gentlemanly sternness of Miss Murdstone's manner, and deprecated her severity with a conciliatory little wave of his hand.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I am bound to say, sir, said Lord John, with some sternness of voice, that your turning up is a considerable relief to us, for our mission seemed to have come to a premature end.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sir Thomas came towards the table where she sat in trembling wretchedness, and with a good deal of cold sternness, said, It is of no use, I perceive, to talk to you.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He may be stern; he may be exacting; he may be ambitious yet; but his is the sternness of the warrior Greatheart, who guards his pilgrim convoy from the onslaught of Apollyon.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

To my surprise, Van Helsing rose up and said with all his sternness, his iron jaw set and his bushy eyebrows meeting:—"No trifling with me! I never jest! There is grim purpose in all I do; and I warn you that you do not thwart me. Take care, for the sake of others if not for your own."

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Of Miss Lavinia, who acts as a semi-auxiliary bridesmaid, being the first to cry, and of her doing homage (as I take it) to the memory of Pidger, in sobs; of Miss Clarissa applying a smelling-bottle; of Agnes taking care of Dora; of my aunt endeavouring to represent herself as a model of sternness, with tears rolling down her face; of little Dora trembling very much, and making her responses in faint whispers.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)