SERIOUSNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does seriousness mean? 

• SERIOUSNESS (noun)
  The noun SERIOUSNESS has 3 senses:

1. an earnest and sincere feeling

2. the quality of arousing fear or distress

3. the trait of being serious

  Familiarity information: SERIOUSNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SERIOUSNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An earnest and sincere feeling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

earnestness; seriousness; sincerity

Hypernyms ("seriousness" is a kind of...):

gravity; solemnity (a solemn and dignified feeling)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of arousing fear or distress

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

distressfulness; seriousness

Context example:

he learned the seriousness of his illness

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:

The trait of being serious

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

earnestness; serious-mindedness; seriousness; sincerity

Context example:

a lack of solemnity is not necessarily a lack of seriousness

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)

 Context examples 

There was a seriousness in Harriet's manner which prepared her, quite as much as her words, for something more than ordinary.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

My dear, returned Mr. Micawber with sudden seriousness, I have no desire to answer for others.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But steadily and with seriousness, Keesh went on.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Saturn will oppose the full moon lunar eclipse in Cancer on January 10, indicating the seriousness of the decisions you are making now with the funds you are appropriating.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

An indication or description that the seriousness of an adverse event was due to a congenital abnormality.

(Adverse Event Seriousness Due to Congenital Anomaly, NCI Thesaurus)

To my astonishment, he did not break out into a fury, as I expected, but took the matter in simple seriousness.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The date (and time) on which the seriousness code was assigned to the adverse event.

(Adverse Event Seriousness Date, NCI Thesaurus)

Well, I am much mistaken if his lovely Maria will ever want him to make two-and-forty speeches to her; adding, with a momentary seriousness, She is too good for him—much too good.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine—mine to protect, love, and cherish.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I speak in all seriousness.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)