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.

   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^[1], 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.

   Antonym: lenient

   a severe taskmaster

3. Sober, plain in appearance, austere.

   a severe old maiden aunt

   severe clothing

Synonyms

• brutal
• extreme
• hard
• harsh
• intense
• rigorous
• serious
• heavy

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)
• 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 m
• Gothic: 𐌰𐌱𐍂𐍃 (abrs)
• Greek: σφοδρός (el) m (sfodrós)
• Hebrew: חָמוּר (he) m (khamur)
• 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)
• 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, duro (gl), estrito
• German: streng (de)
• Greek: αυστηρός (el) m (afstirós), άτεγκτος (el) m (átegktos), βαρύς (el) (varýs)
• Hebrew: קָשֶׁה (he) m (kashé), קָשׁוּחַ m (kashúakh)
• 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)
• 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
• 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)
• 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.
• “severe”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →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): /seˈu̯eː.re/, [s̠eˈu̯eːrɛ]
• sevēre: (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /seˈve.re/, [seˈvɛːre]
• sēvēre: (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /seːˈu̯eː.re/, [s̠eːˈu̯eːrɛ]
• sēvēre: (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /seˈve.re/, [seˈvɛːre]

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