What does severity mean?
Severity is a formal noun describing the seriousness, harshness, or intensity of something. It is often used when evaluating problems, threats, conditions, or responses: a storm may be described as severe in intensity, while a punishment may be severe in its strictness. In medicine, severity commonly indicates the degree of an illness or injury; in law and public affairs, it refers to how grave a threat, offence, or crisis is. The word can therefore carry both factual and evaluative force, describing measurable intensity while also implying that the matter is serious enough to demand attention. It is especially common in reports, clinical descriptions, legal judgments, and discussions of safety or policy. Severity is useful where precision matters, since it identifies not simply that something is bad but how intensely, seriously, or harshly it is so.
nounThe degree of seriousness, harshness, or intensity of a situation, condition, or response. It can refer to how grave a problem is or to the strictness with which someone is treated.
- The degree to which a situation, problem, or threat is serious or grave.
- The harshness or strictness of a punishment, treatment, or response.
- The intensity of a condition, such as an illness, injury, weather event, or loss.
"The severity of the storm forced the organizers to cancel the outdoor event."
"The severity of the flooding made it necessary to evacuate several neighborhoods."
"The court considered the severity of the offence when determining the sentence."
The plural is relatively uncommon and is used for separate instances or degrees of seriousness or harshness.
"The study compared the severities of the two conditions."
Severity comes from a Latin root associated with strictness and separation, capturing how a problem can mark the line between tolerable and intolerable.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does severity come from?
The English word dates from the early 15th century and was borrowed through Old French from Latin severitas, meaning strictness or severity. Latin severitas was formed from severus, “strict, stern, or serious,” which is related to sever, “to separate.” Its English relatives include severe, severely, sever, and severance.
Related word forms
How severity is actually used
Predominantly formal and professional, especially in legal, medical, governmental, and public-safety contexts. It may suggest either the gravity of a situation or the harshness of a response, while in clinical descriptions it usually refers to intensity rather than moral harshness. There is no significant British-American difference.