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harsh

adjective · verb

Simple meaning

Unkind, severe or unpleasantly rough.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

hahrsh
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈhɑɹʃ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Of textures that are rough to the touch or substances consisting of relatively large particles

  2. Unpleasantly rough to the touch or other senses.

  3. Severe or cruel.

verb

  1. ambitransitiveslang

    To negatively criticize.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Of textures that are rough to the touch or substances consisting of relatively large particles

Used this way, harsh is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use harsh

  • “The harsh winter weather made it difficult to go outside.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

harsh treatmentharsh conditionsharsh realityharsh voiceless harshharsh criticismharsh environmentharsh word

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • harshlyadverbDerived adverb

    In a harsh or unkind manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • harsh onverbCompound term

    Criticize harshly.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: of textures that are rough to the touch

heavy

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.