| adjective | intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality “severe pain” |
| adjective | very strong or vigorous “strong winds” |
| adjective | severely simple “a stark interior” |
| adjective | unsparing and uncompromising in discipline or judgment; - H.G.Wells “a parent severe to the pitch of hostility” |
| adjective | causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm “a dangerous operation” |
| adjective | very bad in degree or extent “a severe worldwide depression” |
| severeness | noun | used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather |
| severity | noun | used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather |
| terribleness | noun | a quality of extreme unpleasantness |
| austereness | noun | extreme plainness |
| starkness | noun | an extreme lack of furnishings or ornamentation |
| sternness | noun | the quality (as of scenery) being grim and gloomy and forbidding |
| dangerousness | noun | the quality of not being safe |
| seriousness | noun | the quality of arousing fear or distress |