severity

Noun

• excessive sternness
  • severity of character
    
  • the harshness of his punishment was inhuman
    
  • the rigors of boot camp
    

• extreme plainness

• something hard to endure
  • the asperity of northern winters
    

• used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  austereness , severeness , asperity , grimness , hardship , rigor , rigour , rigorousness , rigourousness , badness