Word.ws English Dictionary

severing

/ˈsɛvəɹɪŋ/

severing is the present participle and gerund of sever.

Meaning of sever

Verb

sever (third-person singular simple present severs, present participle severing, simple past and past participle severed)

  1. (transitive) To cut free.
    • After he graduated, he severed all links to his family.
    Synonyms:
    hew
  2. (intransitive) To suffer disjunction; to be parted or separated.
    • No more can I be seuered from your side1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  3. (intransitive) To make a separation or distinction; to distinguish.
    • The Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 9:4
  4. To disconnect; to disunite; to terminate.
    • sever an estate in joint tenancy1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC

Noun

severing (plural severings)

  1. The act by which something is severed.
    • The penile mishaps (one involving a bristled toothbrush), severings (one involves hungry ducks) and surgeries cited by Ms. Roach are nothing if not memorable, but her book consistently undermines its own discoveries.2008 April 7, Janet Maslin, “A Sex Researcher Walks Into a Lab, and Then Things Start to Get Comical”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2022

Forms of severing

pluralseverings

Questions about severing

What does severing mean?
Severing means the act by which something is severed.
What is severing the present participle and gerund of?
Severing is the present participle and gerund of sever.
What part of speech is severing?
Severing is a noun.
How do you pronounce severing?
Severing is pronounced /ˈsɛvəɹɪŋ/.
What is the plural of severing?
The plural of severing is severings.

Words near severing in the dictionary

  1. Severia
  2. Severian
  3. Severians
  4. severies
  5. Severin
  6. severing
  7. severings
  8. Severino
  9. Severinos
  10. severities
  11. Severitus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: severing (page history and authors); sever (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.

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Cite this entry: “severing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/severing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.