Starkness

stark  (stärk)

adj. stark·er, stark·est

1. Bare or blunt: "His language has become increasingly stark, to the point of sounding strident" (Robert Pear).

2. Complete or utter; extreme: stark poverty; a stark contrast.

3. Harsh; grim: "faced with that stark future" (Robert C. McFarlane). "[They] found it hard to accept such a stark portrait of unrelieved failure" (W. Bruce Lincoln).

adv.

Utterly; entirely: stark raving mad.

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[Middle English, stiff, severe, strong, from Old English stearc; see ster-¹ in Indo-European roots.]

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starkly adv.

starkness n.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	starkness - the quality of being complete or utter or extreme; "the starkness of his contrast between justice and fairness was open to many objections" absoluteness, utterness limit, bound, boundary - the greatest possible degree of something; "what he did was beyond the bounds of acceptable behavior"; "to the limit of his ability"
	2.	starkness - an extreme lack of furnishings or ornamentation; "I was struck by the starkness of my father's room" bareness plainness - the appearance of being plain and unpretentious