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{%type%} Definitions

WordNet 3.0Copyright Princeton University
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n. - Excessive sternness; The quality of being cruel and causing tension or annoyance; The roughness of a substance that causes abrasions; The quality of being unpleasant to the senses.

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Usage examples (37)
  • The harshness of his punishment was inhuman
  • I think the real cause of this online harshness is BECAUSE it is anonymous.
  • Such harshness is a curious contrast with the leniency which advised the creditor to remit debts by way of alms.
  • D — — had none of that harshness, which is peculiar to many priests, nevertheless.
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The Open Dictionary of English is a collaborative project, based on Open Source materials, LearnThat resources, and partner APIs.
We give special thanks to our LearnThat volunteers, as well as Princeton University and Wiktionary for their Open Source word data. We're also grateful for the support given by Google, Wordnik.com, Dictionary.com, Stands4.com and YouTube, OEDILF.com, Kylescholz.com, Best-Practice.com, Forvo.com, as well as the generous Creative Commons community.