severe
intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality
How often you will meet it
Rank 2,368 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 7,304 times across 155,370 chapters — 0.003% of every word in the library.
What it means
adjective
- intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality also: terrible, wicked severe paina severe case of flu
- very strong or vigorous also: hard, knockout strong windsa hard left to the chin
- severely simple also: austere, stark, stern a stark interior
- unsparing and uncompromising in discipline or judgment also: spartan a parent severe to the pitch of hostilitya hefty six-footer with a rather severe mien
- causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm also: dangerous, grave, grievous, serious, life-threatening a dangerous operationa grave situation
- very bad in degree or extent a severe worldwide depressionthe house suffered severe damage
severe in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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Angus was not less severe on Wilson's sly smoothness of manner.
The Shadow of a Crime: A Cumbrian Romance · Hall, Sir Caine · Chapter 1
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The talking brought on severe coughing, and he sank back exhausted.
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch · Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice · Chapter 1
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Severe his task those visits to forego, And feed his heart with voluntary woe.
Rural Tales, Ballads, and Songs · Robert Bloomfield · Chapter 1
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In the earliest speeches were noted the severe logic and the strict adherence to the subject in hand.
Lincoln's Inaugurals, Addresses and Letters · Abraham Lincoln · Chapter 1
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He owed his fortune, I was assured, to his sole labor, but also to prodigies of economy and the most severe privations.
Other People's Money · Emile Gaboriau · Chapter 1