severe

See also: Severe and sévère

English

Etymology

From Middle French, from Latin severus (“severe, serious, grave in demeanor”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sɪˈvɪə/

  Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /sɪˈvɪɹ/

  Audio (US):

  (file)

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /sɪˈviːɹ/, /-vɪɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

Adjective

severe (comparative severer or more severe, superlative severest or most severe)

1. Very bad or intense.

   Synonyms: extreme, intense

   Antonyms: mild, minor

   • 1934, Your Germs and Mine, page 295:

     In the severer cases of hookworm the patient sometimes has an appetite for soil, paper, hair, clay, chalk, starch, and other unpalatables.

   • 1973, Oliver Sacks, Awakenings:

     Parkinsonism, at its severest, presents itself as an akinetic amimia (as opposed to certain cortical disorders which are amimic akinesias).

   • 2012 January, Donald Worster, “A Drier and Hotter Future”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 26 January 2012, page 70:

     Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force.

2. Strict or harsh.

   Synonyms: brutal, hard, heartless, heavy, rigorous, serious; see also Thesaurus:stern

   Antonym: lenient

   a severe taskmaster

3. Sober, plain in appearance, austere.

   Synonyms: modest, simple; see also Thesaurus:unadorned

   a severe old maiden aunt

   severe clothing

Derived terms

• severe acute respiratory syndrome
• severe clear
• severe combined immunodeficiency
• severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome
• severe gale
• severely (adverb)
• severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy
• severeness (noun)
• severe tea
• severity (noun)

Translations

very bad or intense

Armenian: ծանր (hy) (canr) Belarusian: суро́вы (suróvy), цяжкі́ (be) (cjažkí) Bulgarian: суро́в (bg) (suróv), жесток (bg) (žestok) Chinese: Mandarin: 嚴重 / 严重 (zh) (yánzhòng) Danish: hård (da), stærk (da), voldsom, kras Faroese: harðligur Finnish: ankara (fi), vakava (fi), raju (fi), tuima (fi), kova (fi) French: grave (fr), sévère (fr) Galician: severo (gl) m Gothic: 𐌰𐌱𐍂𐍃 (abrs) Greek: σφοδρός (el) m (sfodrós) Hebrew: חָמוּר (he) m (khamur) Hindi: कठोर (hi) (kaṭhor) Hungarian: komoly (hu), súlyos (hu) Icelandic: harkalegur (is) Indonesian: parah (id) Irish: anróiteach Italian: rigido (it), duro (it), grave (it) Japanese: 酷い (ja) (ひどい, hidoi) Latvian: nopietns, ārkārtējs Maori: pākaha (of pain or discomfort), tārū (of pain), kakawa (Of weather, terrain etc.) Middle English: sad Norwegian: Bokmål: hard, krass (no), brysk, ublid, voldsom (no) Nynorsk: hard, krass, brysk, ublid Occitan: sevèr (oc), estricte (oc) Old East Slavic: суровъ (surovŭ) Persian: سخت (fa) (saxt), شدید (fa) (šadid), ستهم (setahm) Polish: poważny (pl) Portuguese: severo (pt) Russian: суро́вый (ru) (suróvyj), тяжёлый (ru) (tjažólyj) Spanish: severo (es), grave (es) Swedish: hård (sv), skarp (sv), kärv (sv), brysk (sv), våldsam (sv) Thai: ร้ายแรง (th) (ráai-rɛɛng), รุนแรง (th) (run-rɛɛng), สาหัส (th) (sǎa-hàt) Tibetan: ཚབས་ཆེན་པོ (tshabs chen po) Ukrainian: суво́рий (suvóryj), тяжки́й (uk) (tjažkýj), лю́тий (uk) (ljútyj)

strict or harsh

Basque: zorrotz Belarusian: суро́вы (suróvy), стро́гі (stróhi) Bulgarian: строг (bg) (strog) Chinese: Mandarin: 嚴厲 / 严厉 (zh) (yánlì) Danish: streng Dutch: streng (nl) Esperanto: severa (eo) Finnish: ankara (fi), vaikea (fi) French: sévère (fr) Galician: severo (gl), duro (gl), estrito (gl) German: streng (de) Greek: αυστηρός (el) m (afstirós), άτεγκτος (el) m (átegktos), βαρύς (el) (varýs) Hebrew: קָשֶׁה (he) m (kashé), קָשׁוּחַ m (kashúakh) Hindi: कठोर (hi) (kaṭhor) Hungarian: szigorú (hu) Italian: duro (it), severo (it), rigido (it) Japanese: 厳しい (ja) (きびしい, kibishii) Latin: tētricus Latvian: bargs Maori: kakawa Middle English: stith Occitan: estricte (oc), sevèr (oc) Old English: āfor Polish: srogi (pl), surowy (pl) Portuguese: duro (pt), rígido (pt), severo (pt) Russian: суро́вый (ru) (suróvyj), стро́гий (ru) (strógij), жёсткий (ru) (žóstkij) Sanskrit: कठोर (sa) (kaṭhora), दारुण (sa) (dāruṇa) Spanish: severo (es) Thai: เข้มงวด (th) (kêm-ngûuat), เคร่งครัด, เคร่งขรึม (th) Tibetan: དྲག་པོ (drag po) Ukrainian: суво́рий (suvóryj), стро́гий (stróhyj) Volapük: sevärik (vo)

austere

Bulgarian: прост (bg) (prost), неукрасен (bg) (neukrasen) Finnish: vakava (fi), karu (fi) French: sévère (fr) Galician: austero (gl), severo (gl) Greek: αυστηρός (el) m (afstirós), λιτός (el) m (litós) Italian: austero (it) Japanese: 渋い (ja) (しぶい, shibui) Occitan: sevèr (oc), austèr (oc) Polish: surowy (pl) Portuguese: austero (pt), severo (pt) Russian: стро́гий (ru) (strógij), суро́вый (ru) (suróvyj) Spanish: severo (es), austero (es) Thai: เรียบง่าย Tibetan: དཀའ་ཐུབ་དྲག་པོ (dka' thub drag po)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Arabic: (please verify) قاس (qá:si) Dutch: (please verify) streng (nl) French: (please verify) sévère (fr) Icelandic: (please verify) strangur (is) Irish: (please verify) aithrinneach, (please verify) amhnas Italian: (please verify) severo (it) Korean: (please verify) 엄격한 (eomgyeokhan) Swedish: (please verify) sträng (sv) Telugu: (please verify) తీవ్రమైన (te) (tīvramaina)

Further reading

• “severe”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “severe”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “severe”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Reeves, everse, reeves, servee

Esperanto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /seˈvere/
• Rhymes: -ere
• Hyphenation: se‧ve‧re

Adverb

severe

1. severely

Related terms

• severa

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /seˈvɛ.re/
• Rhymes: -ɛre
• Hyphenation: se‧vè‧re

Adjective

severe

1. feminine plural of severo

Latin

Pronunciation

• sevēre:
  • (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [sɛˈweː.rɛ]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [seˈvɛː.re]
• sēvēre:
  • (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [seːˈweː.rɛ]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [seˈvɛː.re]

Adjective

sevēre

1. vocative masculine singular of sevērus

Verb

sēvēre

1. third-person plural perfect active indicative of serō

References

• “severe”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “severe”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “severe”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Serbo-Croatian

Noun

severe (Cyrillic spelling севере)

1. vocative singular of sever