Word.ws English Dictionary

sternity

sternity noun: the quality of being stern.

Noun

sternity (uncountable)

  1. (rare) The quality of being stern.
    • Jemmy eyed him but his sternity rotted to foolishness in his stare.1938, Patrick Kavanagh, The Green Fool, page 98
    • His attitude is that of compassion combind^([sic]) with sternity.1962, R. L. Tewari, A Critical Study of Loyalties (Galsworthy), Mussoorie: Saraswati Sadan, page 31
    Synonyms:
    sternness

Examples of sternity in a sentence

  • It is, for lack of a better tag, a public school with a lot of “sternity.”1978 June 18, Victor Lipman, “A new alternative: basic education”, in New England (Boston Sunday Globe), page 36:
  • wondering what’s wrong / with all these people / how can they live with their sternity2016, Martin Janello, “Defense and Pretense”, in Shine Knowing Shame: Philosophical Quotes & Poems, Palioxis Publishing, →ISBN:

Synonyms of sternity

Origin of sternity

From stern + -ity.

Questions about sternity

What does sternity mean?
Sternity means the quality of being stern.
How do you use sternity in a sentence?
It is, for lack of a better tag, a public school with a lot of “sternity.”
What part of speech is sternity?
Sternity is a noun.

Words near sternity in the dictionary

  1. sternids
  2. sterning
  3. sternite
  4. sternites
  5. sternitic
  6. sternity
  7. sternless
  8. sternlier
  9. sternliest
  10. sternly
  11. sternman

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sternity (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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