severity
noun
Simple meaning
Used of the degree of something undesirable e.g.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sihvehrihteeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
sɪˈvɛɹɪti
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather
The degree of something undesirable; badness or seriousness.
The state of being severe.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather
Used this way, severity is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. This sense is used where position and measurement matter — travel, weather and flight — so it reads as factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Geography/travel
- Weather/aviation
- Technical/specialist writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use severity
- “The doctor assessed the severity of the patient's injury immediately.”
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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.