severity

Plural: severities

Noun

• The state or quality of being very great, strict, or harsh.
• used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather
• something hard to endure
• extreme plainness
• excessive sternness
  • "severity of character"
• The state of being severe.
• The degree of something undesirable; badness or seriousness.

Examples

• The severity of his opponent’s plays left him little room to maneuver.
• The severity of the offence merits a long prison sentence.

Synonyms

asperity, austereness, badness, grimness, hardness, hardship, harshness, inclemency, rigor, rigorousness, rigour, rigourousness, severeness, stiffness