Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Severity

Se·ver′i·ty, n.; pl. Severities (#). [L. severitas: cf. F. sévérité.] The quality or state of being severe. Specifically: —

(a) Gravity or austerity; extreme strictness; rigor; harshness; as, the severity of a reprimand or a reproof; severity of discipline or government; severity of penalties. "Strict age, and sour severity." Milton.

(b) The quality or power of distressing or paining; extreme degree; extremity; intensity; inclemency; as, the severity of pain or anguish; the severity of cold or heat; the severity of the winter.

(c) Harshness; cruel treatment; sharpness of punishment; as, severity practiced on prisoners of war.

(d) Exactness; rigorousness; strictness; as, the severity of a test.

Confining myself to the severity of truth. Dryden.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.