as in hardness
the quality or state of being demanding or unyielding (as in discipline or criticism)
even though no one expected the film to be a hit with the critics, the director was taken aback by the severity of the criticism
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of severity
The footage has circulated widely online and was referenced by officials to highlight the crash’s severity and the scale of emergency response.
—
Hollie Silverman, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2025
Blocking these receptors helps stabilize the body’s internal thermostat, reducing the frequency and severity of hot flashes and night sweats.
—Fran Kritz, Verywell Health, 5 Nov. 2025
Both players who received red cards this season, Ary Borges and Kayla Fischer, were starters, and in each case, the league escalated its disciplinary decision because of the severity of the incidents.
—Tamerra Griffin, New York Times, 3 Nov. 2025
Treatment might include light therapy, counseling or short-term medication, depending on severity, duration and impact on your everyday life.
—Katia Hetter, CNN Money, 3 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for severity
Hollie Silverman, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2025
Blocking these receptors helps stabilize the body’s internal thermostat, reducing the frequency and severity of hot flashes and night sweats.
—Fran Kritz, Verywell Health, 5 Nov. 2025
Both players who received red cards this season, Ary Borges and Kayla Fischer, were starters, and in each case, the league escalated its disciplinary decision because of the severity of the incidents.
—Tamerra Griffin, New York Times, 3 Nov. 2025
Treatment might include light therapy, counseling or short-term medication, depending on severity, duration and impact on your everyday life.
—Katia Hetter, CNN Money, 3 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for severity
Recent Examples of Synonyms for severity
Noun
-
Li, a writer whose stories are compressed and deceptively simple, spoke with humor and a certain hardness, perhaps born of the clarity of unimaginable loss.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
7 Oct. 2025
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Finally, impact strength assesses a material’s ability to absorb sudden shocks without shattering, highlighting that the hardness alone doesn’t always mean toughness.—
Atharva Gosavi,
Interesting Engineering,
26 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
The attorneys speaking with all pointed out that this regulation is in its early days, and the strictness or severity of state reviews of health care private equity transactions is yet to be determined.—
Aman Kidwai,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Oct. 2025
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Still, states vary in their strictness.—
Rebecca Schneid,
Time,
31 Aug. 2025
Noun
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That rigidity probably explains why Gospodinov chooses, against all evidence, to call the book a novel.—
James Wood,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
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The rigidity that had robbed her of movement began to ease off.—
Jack Beresford,
MSNBC Newsweek,
31 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Middleton aimed to create a score that reflects the harshness and hope of the desert setting.—
Audrey Gibbs,
Nashville Tennessean,
17 Oct. 2025
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The harshness of the language and the raw politicking shocked voters.—
Matt Klink,
Oc Register,
6 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Reportedly, a final deal between the U.S. and the EU was held up over Trump’s distaste for the stringency of the Digital Services Act, a regulation that aims to make the internet safer and more transparent for EU citizens and consumers.—
Meghan Hall,
Sourcing Journal,
8 Sep. 2025
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Further, Minnesota agencies that oversee mining have upheld the stringency of those standards when challenged by mining opponents in court.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
19 Aug. 2025
Noun
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But there is also such a thing as being too good, where your own purity takes precedence over all else, leading to inflexibility and inaction.—
Shadi Hamid,
Time,
3 Nov. 2025
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An impressive defensive coach, he has occasionally been criticized for a certain regular season inflexibility in his rotations and overplaying his best contributors.—
Alex Kirschenbaum,
MSNBC Newsweek,
21 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Severity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/severity. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.
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