Adjective: severe
Comparison Forms
Synthetic
| Comparative | severer |
| Superlative | severest |
Perifrastic
| Comparative | more severe |
| Superlative | most severe |
Sample Sentences
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In the severer cases of hookworm the patient sometimes has an appetite for soil, paper, hair, clay, chalk, starch, and other unpalatables. [1934, Your Germs and Mine, page 295:]
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Parkinsonism, at its severest, presents itself as an akinetic amimia (as opposed to certain cortical disorders which are amimic akinesias). [1973, Oliver Sacks, Awakenings:]
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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. [2012 January 26, Donald Worster, “A Drier and Hotter Future”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2012, page 70:]
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a severe taskmaster
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a severe old maiden aunt
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severe clothing
Adjectives inflected like severe
serene,
severe,
secure,
sedate,
wheelie,
simple,
complete,
fulsome,
sprightlie,
discrete,
plosive,
bizarre,
brusque,
brittle,
wholesome,
sincere,
shystie,
loveable,
prophane,
terrible, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)
Etymology
From Middle French, from Latin severus (“severe, serious, grave in demeanor”). See: Latin Adjectives '
severus'.