Austere vs Prosaic - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between austere and prosaic

is that austere is grim or severe in manner or appearance while prosaic is pertaining to or having the characteristics of prose.

(en-adj)

Grim or severe in manner or appearance

The headmistress was an austere old woman.

Lacking trivial decoration; not extravagant or gaudy

The interior of the church was as austere as the parishioners were dour.

* (grim or severe) stern, strict, forbidding * (lacking trivial decoration) simple, plain, unadorned, unembellished

* (not lacking trivial decoration) overwrought, flamboyant, extravagant, gaudy, flashy

* austerity * austerely

(en adjective)

Pertaining to or having the characteristics of prose.

The tenor of Eliot's prosaic work differs greatly from that of his poetry.

(of writing or speaking) Straightforward; matter-of-fact; lacking the feeling or elegance of poetry.

I was simply making the prosaic point that we are running late.

(usually of writing or speaking but also figurative) Overly plain, simple or commonplace, to the point of being boring; humdrum; dull; unimaginative.

His account of the incident was so prosaic that I nodded off while reading it.

She lived a prosaic life.

* See also

* poetic