| Library / English Dictionary |
SERIOUSNESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The trait of being serious
Example:
a lack of solemnity is not necessarily a lack of seriousness
Synonyms:
earnestness; serious-mindedness; seriousness; sincerity
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("seriousness" is a kind of...):
trait (a distinguishing feature of your personal nature)
Attribute:
serious (concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities)
frivolous (not serious in content or attitude or behavior)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "seriousness"):
commitment; committedness (the trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose)
graveness; gravity; soberness; sobriety; somberness; sombreness (a manner that is serious and solemn)
sedateness; solemness; solemnity; staidness (a trait of dignified seriousness)
Antonym:
frivolity (the trait of being frivolous; not serious or sensible)
Derivation:
serious (of great consequence)
serious (concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities)
serious (completely lacking in playfulness)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The quality of arousing fear or distress
Example:
he learned the seriousness of his illness
Synonyms:
distressfulness; seriousness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("seriousness" is a kind of...):
badness; severeness; severity (used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather)
Derivation:
serious (causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm)
Sense 3
Meaning:
An earnest and sincere feeling
Synonyms:
earnestness; seriousness; sincerity
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("seriousness" is a kind of...):
gravity; solemnity (a solemn and dignified feeling)
Context examples:
I tell you, Watson, in all seriousness, that if I could beat that man, if I could free society of him, I should feel that my own career had reached its summit, and I should be prepared to turn to some more placid line in life.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The young man listened to this tale of wrong with all the seriousness that he could maintain; but at the sight of the pursy red-faced man and the dignity with which he bore him, the laughter came so thick upon him that he had to lean up against a tree-trunk.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
D’ye know, Hump, he said, with a slow seriousness which had in it an indefinable strain of sadness, that this is the first time I have heard the word ‘ethics’ in the mouth of a man. You and I are the only men on this ship who know its meaning.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
I had the curiosity to inquire in a particular manner, by what methods great numbers had procured to themselves high titles of honour, and prodigious estates; and I confined my inquiry to a very modern period: however, without grating upon present times, because I would be sure to give no offence even to foreigners (for I hope the reader need not be told, that I do not in the least intend my own country, in what I say upon this occasion,) a great number of persons concerned were called up; and, upon a very slight examination, discovered such a scene of infamy, that I cannot reflect upon it without some seriousness.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I thought them a habit, a trick, nothing that called for seriousness on my side.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
You seem cognizant of the seriousness of the effort you are making and how important it will be to you that the event turns out to be perfect in every way.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
I could not but note the quaint legal phrase which she used in such a place, and with all seriousness.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Dora put his nose to mine, and said Boh! to drive my seriousness away; but, not succeeding, ordered him into his Pagoda, and sat looking at me, with her hands folded, and a most resigned little expression of countenance.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
She was not to be won by all that gallantry and wit and good-nature together could do; or, at least, she would not be won by them nearly so soon, without the assistance of sentiment and feeling, and seriousness on serious subjects.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Another paper, in deadly seriousness, reproving Helen Della Delmar for her parody, said: But unquestionably Miss Delmar wrote it in a moment of badinage and not quite with the respect that one great poet should show to another and perhaps to the greatest.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
