Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use severe in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective

Severe means very bad or intense. Example: “A report by the telecommunications ministry on the phone network revealed a severe capacity problem.”

Examples of severe by meaning

adjectiveVery bad or intense.

  • In the severer cases of hookworm the patient sometimes has an appetite for soil, paper, hair, clay, chalk, starch, and other unpalatables.1934, Your Germs and Mine, page 295
  • Parkinsonism, at its severest, presents itself as an akinetic amimia (as opposed to certain cortical disorders which are amimic akinesias).1973, Oliver Sacks, Awakenings
  • Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse.2012 January, Donald Worster, “A Drier and Hotter Future”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 26...

adjectiveStrict or harsh.

  • a severe taskmaster

adjectiveSober, plain in appearance, austere.

  • a severe old maiden aunt

More sentences with severe

  • A report by the telecommunications ministry on the phone network revealed a severe capacity problem.From the entry report
  • After the hurricane there was a severe regional shortage of plywood, especially exterior plywood.From the entry plywood
  • Severe radiation poisoning results in the total denudation of the gastrointestinal tract.From the entry denudation
  • Although the antemortem injuries are severe, they are not the cause of death.From the entry antemortem
  • They treated patients with nonsevere injuries after the more severe cases.From the entry nonsevere
  • Patients with severe prosopagnosia rely on voice recognition to identify people.From the entry voice recognition
  • In severe cases, polytherapy is indicated (including corticosteroids, analgesics, arthroplasty, physical therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy).From the entry polytherapy
  • In severe cases, cotherapy with corticosteroids and monoclonal antibodies is indicated.From the entry cotherapy
  • He got a severe reprimand for that.From the entry get
  • High levels of mercury can cause severe toxicity.From the entry toxicity
  • During the pandemic, we had to live under severe restrictions.From the entry under
  • The seatback should always be up while driving so that the occupant doesn't submarine and potentially suffer severe internal injury.From the entry submarine
  • He struggled with severe acne during his teenage years.From the entry acne
  • The passenger sustained a severe injury in the car accident.From the entry injury
  • They recovered three of the explorers very much alive, then another, wracked with severe hypothermia, who was taken to hospital.From the entry recover
  • They confessed, but only under severe constraint.From the entry constraint
  • His severe depersonalization causes an aloof demeanor.From the entry depersonalization
  • Alarmingly, he went into a severe sneezing fit.From the entry alarmingly
  • He went into an alarmingly severe sneezing fit.From the entry alarmingly
  • A love of pleasure indisposes the mind to severe study.From the entry indispose
  • The patient had a severe meningococcal infection.From the entry meningococcal
  • He received a severe dressing down from the head teacher.From the entry dressing down
  • In severe cases, monoclonal antibodies are added as a cotherapy.From the entry cotherapy
  • Meat that is undercured may pose severe health risks.From the entry undercure
  • Earthquakes can cause severe ground deformation.From the entry deformation
  • Cuba took limited free market-oriented measures to alleviate severe shortages of food, consumer goods, and services to make up for the ending of Soviet subsidies.From the entry make up
  • The fire-and-brimstone preacher gave the city council a severe tongue-lashing after they voted on a zoning ordinance allowing a new strip club to open.From the entry fire and brimstone
  • When a patient has copious track marks demonstrating severe circulatory system damage, injections are done by drilling into the bone marrow and administering medicine intraosseously.From the entry track marks
  • After consuming too much coffee every day for six weeks, she got severe migraines that would last up until 47 minutes after her first cup of coffee.From the entry migraine
  • These factors pointed to a mental health crisis severe enough that he wanted to disappear.2026 July 18, Nicholas Muhoro, “Bryce Laspisa Vanished Near Castaic Lake After Spending 13 Hours Parked on a California Highway”, in Skip…. From the entry erratic
  • Recently, the World Health Organization expressed concern about reports of severe disease in China.2022 December 25, Laura Ungar, Aniruddha Ghosal, “China’s COVID-19 surge raises odds of new coronavirus mutant”, in AP News, archived from…. From the entry Baoding
  • Echocardiography revealed severe eccentric mitral regurgitation with multiple high-intensity signals (tiger stripes) on continuous wave (CW) Doppler.2022, Najeeb Ullah Sofi, Santosh Kumar Sinha, Mohit Sachan, Ramesh Thakur, “Tiger stripes in carditis of rheumatic origin”, in Heart…. From the entry tiger stripe
  • The fire created dry lightning storms so severe that planes had to be grounded.2020 January 1, Bernard Lagan, “Thousands flee to beaches as the flames close in”, in The Times, number 73,044, page 24. From the entry fire
  • Jewsel does both in the same comment: “Well, you are severe gaycel, or an extreme mentalcel.2020, Joshua A. Segalewitz, "'You Don’t Understand... It’s Not About Virginity': Sexual Markets, Identity Construction, and Violent…. From the entry mentalcel
  • The fuel derich system on each engine protected against severe turbine over-temperature.2019 [2008], Richard H. Graham, Flying the SR-71 Blackbird: In the Cockpit on a Secret Operational Mission, Motorbooks International…. From the entry derich

Meaning of severe

  1. adjective Very bad or intense.
  2. adjective Strict or harsh.
  3. adjective Sober, plain in appearance, austere.

Full definition of severe

Questions about severe in a sentence

How do you use severe in a sentence?
Severe is used as an adjective. For example: “A report by the telecommunications ministry on the phone network revealed a severe capacity problem.”
What is a short sentence with severe?
“a severe taskmaster”
What does severe mean?
Severe means very bad or intense.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: severe (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use severe in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/severe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.