austereness

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aus·tere

(ô-stîr′)

adj. aus·ter·er, aus·ter·est

1. Severe or stern in disposition or appearance; somber and grave: the austere figure of a Puritan minister.

2. Strict or severe in discipline; ascetic: a desert nomad's austere life. See Synonyms at severe.

3. Having no adornment or ornamentation; bare: an austere style.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin austērus, from Greek austēros.]

aus·tere′ly adv.

aus·tere′ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

austereness - extreme plainness

severeness, severity

plainness - the appearance of being plain and unpretentious

Translations

astinenza

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References in periodicals archive ?

/ My unsoiled name, th' austereness of my life, / My vouch against you, and my place i' th' state / Will so your accusation overweigh / That you shall stifle in your own report, / And smell of calumny.

Portia goes to Washington: Shakespeare and Judge Kavanaugh

Artwork by Liz Amini-Holmes heightens the emotional understanding with the austereness of the school and clear body language.

Native American boarding school experiences in memoirs and fiction

The past two centuries have revealed many contradistinctions attributed to the faith--its schisms, its infinite sects and heresies, its idealisms and fanaticisms, its charities and despoliations, its austereness and effusiveness, its spiritual asceticism and temporal power--that are perpetually juxtaposed throughout the pages of human history.