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say it: suh-VIR
severe is an adjective meaning "intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality". It is pronounced /səˈvɪɹ/ — suh-VIR. It carries 6 recorded senses.
very strong or vigorous
“strong winds”
“a hard left to the chin”
“a knockout punch”
“a severe blow”
unsparing and uncompromising in discipline or judgment
“a parent severe to the pitch of hostility”
“a hefty six-footer with a rather severe mien”
“a strict disciplinarian”
“a Spartan upbringing”
very bad in degree or extent
“a severe worldwide depression”
“the house suffered severe damage”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for severe come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.