noun
1. the quality (as of scenery) being grim and gloomy and forbidding
-
the sternness of his surroundings made him uncomfortable
• Derivationally related forms: ↑stern
• Hypernyms:
↑asperity, ↑grimness, ↑hardship, ↑rigor, ↑rigour, ↑severity, ↑severeness, ↑rigorousness, ↑rigourousness
2. uncompromising resolution
• Syn: ↑strictness
• Derivationally related forms: ↑strict (for: ↑strictness), ↑stern
• Hypernyms: ↑unpermissiveness, ↑restrictiveness
• Hyponyms:
↑Puritanism, ↑severity, ↑severeness, ↑harshness, ↑rigor, ↑rigour, ↑rigorousness, ↑rigourousness, ↑inclemency, ↑hardness, ↑stiffness
Useful english dictionary. 2012.