rigor

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noun rig·or \ ˈri-gər \

Definition of rigor

1 a (1) :harsh inflexibility in opinion, temper, or judgment :severity

(2) :the quality of being unyielding or inflexible :strictness

(3) :severity of life :austerity

b :an act or instance of strictness, severity, or cruelty

2 :a tremor caused by a chill

3 :a condition that makes life difficult, challenging, or uncomfortable; especially :extremity of cold

4 :strict precision :exactness

logical rigor

5 a obsolete :rigidity, stiffness

b :rigidness or torpor of organs or tissue that prevents response to stimuli

c :rigor mortis

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Examples of rigor in a Sentence

They underwent the rigors of military training.
the rigors of life in the wilderness
They conducted the experiments with scientific rigor.
a scholar known for her intellectual rigor

Recent Examples of rigor from the Web

Did it ever strike you as odd to bring that journalistic rigor to something like travel?

— paul brady, CNT, "The Condé Nast Traveler Origin Story, as Told by Founding Editor Sir Harold Evans," 23 Aug. 2017
That means waiting for several years while slowly upgrading the weapon to survive the rigors of combat and the sea.

— kyle mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "The Navy's Railgun Is About to Get Faster and More Powerful," 24 July 2017
The creator of Culturally Responsive Teacher, Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, reminds us that great teaching requires that students receive three things: academic rigor, cultural confidence, and critical consciousness.

— Teen Vogue, "DeRay Mckesson and Diane Guerrero Share What Public Education Means to Them," 10 July 2017
But as social-justice advocates continually broaden their demands, perversions of social justice begin to do damage, like the excesses of any ideology insufficiently checked by analytic rigor and diversity.

— conor friedersdorf, The Atlantic, "A College Student Who Seeks to Learn Rather Than to Teach," 7 July 2017
Always prone to applying Spock-like logical rigor to his analysis of a Republican Party that rarely hewed to this standard, Obama expected to encounter a new, more productive attitude from his opponents across the aisle.

— joshua green, Bloomberg.com, "The Remaking of Donald Trump," 6 July 2017
An internal investigation revealed that the CNN incident was due to a lack of rigor in that process of verification.

— lauren duca, Teen Vogue, "The White House Is Promoting an Anti-Journalism Conspiracy Theory," 29 June 2017
There is a sense of rigor and thematic richness in her direction.

— katie walsh, idahostatesman, "‘The Beguiled’ a masterpiece of woman, war," 29 June 2017
Cooking with his customary rigor and attention to detail, the St. Petersburg, Florida, native is pouring his heart and soul into defining Southern food for Seattle.

— providence cicero, The Seattle Times, "At JuneBaby, star chef Edouardo Jordan returns to his Southern roots," 22 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'rigor.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of rigor

Middle English rigour, from Anglo-French, from Latin rigor, literally, stiffness, from rigēre to be stiff

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

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rigor Synonyms

Synonyms

adversity, asperity, hardness, hardship, difficulty

Antonyms

flexibility, gentleness, laxness, mildness

Related Words

discomfort, inconvenience, nuisance; affliction, trial, tribulation; knock, misfortune, mishap, tragedy; bar, catch, check, clog, crimp, embarrassment, handicap, hindrance, hitch, hurdle, impediment, interference, let, manacle, obstacle, obstruction, pons asinorum, rub, shackle, snag, stop, trammel; block, chain, deterrent, encumbrance, fetter, inhibition; hump

Near Antonyms

advantage, break, opportunity

RIGOR Defined for English Language Learners

rigor

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noun

Definition of rigor for English Language Learners

rigors : the difficult and unpleasant conditions or experiences that are associated with something
: the quality or state of being very exact, careful, or strict