See Also: severity(dictionary)
injury severity score(medicine)
severity of illness index(medicine)
trauma severity indices(medicine)

severity (iou)



severity noun. L15.
[Old & mod. French severite or Latin severitas, formed as SEVERE adjective: see -ITY.]
The fact or condition of being severe; severe behaviour, speech, etc.; extreme strictness or harshness; rigorous exactitude. L15.
M. Schorer The excessive intellectual severity of one style is the counterpart of the excessive lyric relaxation of the other. K. Lines Zeus punished Prometheus with terrible severity. A. Storr A disorder which ranges in severity from mild compulsions..to..total disablement.
An instance of this; a severe action, speech, etc.; a harsh rebuke. Freq. in pl. M16.
J. Veneer Sharp rebukes and legal severities. G. F. Ruxton The severities of a prolonged winter..had robbed his bones of fat.
? See note s.v. SEVERE adjective & adverb.