Harshness Meaning
/hˈɑrʃnəs/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe quality of being harsh.
Sentence Examples
Find a mean between harshness and indulgence.
Harshness should be avoided in those cases.
I was shocked by the harshness of his tone.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ of the desert climate makes it difficult for most plants to survive.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ of the winter weather forced many local residents to stay indoors for several weeks.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English harsknes; equivalent to harsh + -ness.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"And yet these harshnesses are tenderness itself when compared with the universal harshness out of which they grow; the harshness of the position towards the temperament, of the means towards the aims, of to-day towards yesterday, of hereafter towards to-day."
— 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, part 6:
"She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realizing that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky."
— 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter II (Burglary), page 378, column 1:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ of the desert climate makes it difficult for most plants to survive.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ of the winter weather forced many local residents to stay indoors for several weeks.