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Severe vs Somewhat - What's the difference?

severe | somewhat |

As an adjective severe

is severe, harsh.

As an adverb somewhat is

to a limited extent or degree.

As a pronoun somewhat is

(archaic) something.

As a noun somewhat is

more or less; a certain quantity or degree; a part, more or less; something.

severe

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Very bad or intense.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
  • , author=Donald Worster , title=A Drier and Hotter Future , volume=100, issue=1, page=70 , magazine= citation , passage=Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force.}}
  • Strict or harsh.
  • Sober, plain in appearance, austere.
  • Synonyms

    * brutal * extreme * hard * harsh * intense * rigorous * serious

    Antonyms

    * (very bad or intense) mild * (very bad or intense) minor * (strict or harsh) lenient

    Derived terms

    * severely (adverb) * severity (noun) * severeness (noun)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    somewhat

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (qualifier) summat (and variants listed there)

    Adverb

    (-)
  • To a limited extent or degree.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town. I was completely mystified at such an unusual proceeding.}}

    See also

    * slightly

    Pronoun

    (English Pronouns)
  • (archaic) Something.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.12:
  • Proceeding to the midst he stil did stand, / As if in minde he somewhat had to say […].
  • * Robert Trail
  • But this text and theme I am upon, relates to somewhat far higher and greater, than all the beholdings of his glory that ever any saint on earth received.
  • * 1851 , Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
  • Not seldom in this life, when, on the right side, fortune's favourites sail close by us, we, though all adroop before, catch somewhat of the rushing breeze, and joyfully feel our bagging sails fill out.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • More or less; a certain quantity or degree; a part, more or less; something.
  • * Grew
  • These salts have somewhat of a nitrous taste.
  • * Dryden
  • Somewhat of his good sense will suffer, in this transfusion, and much of the beauty of his thoughts will be lost.
  • A person or thing of importance; a somebody.
  • * Tennyson
  • Here come those that worship me. / They think that I am somewhat .