Synonyms:
badness, severity, severeness
Meaning: used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather
Usage examples
She spoke with sweet severity
'Is that a true story you told?' she demanded, with severity in her tone.
Somebody, he felt, ought to be punished for it--punished with great severity.
She looked at me, and spoke to me with a severity which was rare indeed in my experience of her.
"I respect independence of character wherever I find it," he said, with an air of virtuous severity.
Smerdyakov stood facing him, his hands behind his back, looking at him with assurance and almost severity.
But, in that early severity of the Puritan character, an inference of this kind could not so indubitably be drawn.
Petitions to Congress, which were met by gag-laws, constantly increasing in severity, brought the dreaded discussion more and more before the public.
If in the presence of such obstinacy I was forced to permit, with deep regret, the use of great severity, my task of fraternal correction has its limits.
Mellersh, profoundly indignant, besides having his intended treat coming back on him like a blessing to roost, cross-examined her with the utmost severity.