What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Enormity vs Severity - What's the difference?

enormity | severity |

As nouns the difference between enormity and severity

is that enormity is (uncountable) extreme wickedness, nefariousness while severity is the state of being severe.

enormity

English

Noun

(enormities)
  • (uncountable) Extreme wickedness, nefariousness.
    • Not until the war ended and journalists were able to enter Cambodia did the world really become aware of the enormity of Pol Pot's oppression.
  • (countable) An act of extreme evil or wickedness.
  • (uncountable) Hugeness, enormousness, immenseness.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 13 , author=Alistair Magowan , title=Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Rooney and his team-mates started ponderously, as if sensing the enormity of the occasion, but once Scholes began to link with Ryan Giggs in the middle of the park, the visitors increased the tempo with Sunderland struggling to keep up.}}
  • * 2007 , Edwin Mullins, The Popes of Avignon , Blue Bridge 2008, p. 103:
    • But the enormity of Clement's vision of papal grandeur only became clear once the public rooms were completed during the years that immediately followed.

    Usage notes

    * Enormity'' is frequently used as a synonym for "enormousness," rather than "great wickedness." This is frequently considered an error; the words have different roots in French, and radically different accepted meanings, although both trace back to the same Latin source word, ''enormis , meaning "deviating from the norm, abnormal."

    Related terms

    * normativity * normative * enormousness * enormous

    severity

    English

    Noun

    (severities)
  • The state of being severe.
  • The degree of something undesirable; badness or seriousness.
    • The severity of the offence merits a long prison sentence.