From Middle French, from Latin severus (“severe, serious, grave in demeanor”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sɪˈvɪə/

  Audio (UK):

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• (US) IPA^(key): /sɪˈvɪɹ/

  Audio (US):

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• (Canada) IPA^(key): /sɪˈviːɹ/, /-vɪɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

severe (comparative severer or more severe, superlative severest or most severe)

1. Very bad or intense.

   Synonyms: extreme, 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.

   Synonyms: brutal, hard, heartless, heavy, rigorous, serious; see also Thesaurus:stern

   Antonym: lenient

   a severe taskmaster

3. Sober, plain in appearance, austere.

   Synonyms: modest, simple; see also Thesaurus:unadorned

   a severe old maiden aunt

   severe clothing

• “severe”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “severe”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “severe”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Reeves, everse, reeves, servee

• IPA^(key): /seˈvere/
• Rhymes: -ere
• Hyphenation: se‧ve‧re

severe

1. severely

• severa

• IPA^(key): /seˈvɛ.re/
• Rhymes: -ɛre
• Hyphenation: se‧vè‧re

severe

1. feminine plural of severo

• sevēre: (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [sɛˈweː.rɛ]
• sevēre: (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [seˈvɛː.re]
• sēvēre: (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [seːˈweː.rɛ]
• sēvēre: (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [seˈvɛː.re]

sevēre

1. vocative masculine singular of sevērus

sēvēre

1. third-person plural perfect active indicative of serō

• “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.

severe (Cyrillic spelling севере)

1. vocative singular of sever