asper
UK/ˈæspə//ˈæspəɹ/
asper adjective: rough or harsh; severe, stern, serious.
Adjective
asper (comparative more asper, superlative most asper)
Noun (1)
asper (uncountable)
- Rough breathing; a mark (#) indicating that part of a word is aspirated, or pronounced with h before it.
Noun (2)
asper (plural aspers)
- Any one of several small coins, circulated around the eastern Mediterranean area from the 12th to 17th centuries.
- And for ten Aspers you shall daily finde some amongst them, that will give themselves a deepe gash with a Scimitarie, either in their armes or thighes.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
Proper noun capitalized: Asper
Asper (plural Aspers)
- A surname.
Forms of asper
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more asper |
| superlative | most asper |
| alternative form | aspre |
| Noun | |
| plural | aspers |
| alternative form | aspron |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Aspers |
Origin of asper
From Middle English aspre, from Old French aspre (modern French âpre), from Latin asper (“rough”).
From Middle English asper, from Middle French aspre or Italian aspro, both from Ancient Greek ἄσπρον (áspron), from neuter of ἄσπρος (áspros, “white”), from Latin asper (“rough, newly minted”).
Words formed from asper
Questions about asper
- What does asper mean?
- Asper means rough or harsh; severe, stern, serious.
- What part of speech is asper?
- Asper can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce asper?
- Asper is pronounced /ˈæspə/ (UK).
Words near asper in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: asper (page history and authors); Asper (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-asper.ogg.
Cite this entry: “asper.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/asper. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.