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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
seriousness
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
play down the importance/seriousness/significance of sth
▪ The White House spokeswoman sought to play down the significance of the event.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
great
▪ These discussions are characterised by an increasing scope and depth as the issues are accorded greater philosophical seriousness.
high
▪ What Hunt took as high seriousness, I took as a typical Lauda sideswipe, the fox laughing at the huntsman.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He loved the look of seriousness that came over her face.
▪ I approve the deadly seriousness, the piety, the need for something sacred in your life.
▪ In conclusion, though there is no denying the seriousness of the problem, many questions still remain unanswered.
▪ Mr McDaid said he fully accepted the seriousness of what had happened but was standing by his son.
▪ Sometimes there was a new seriousness, the supple posture of childhood exchanged for squared shoulders and a stiff spine.
▪ These discussions are characterised by an increasing scope and depth as the issues are accorded greater philosophical seriousness.
▪ They agree about the seriousness of the crime statistics and the importance of full disclosure.
▪ They had the imagination of their times and the literal seriousness required for the absolute invention of their entire lives.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Seriousness

Serious \Se"ri*ous\, a. [L. serius: cf. F. s['e]rieux, LL. seriosus.]

  1. Grave in manner or disposition; earnest; thoughtful; solemn; not light, gay, or volatile.

    He is always serious, yet there is about his manner a graceful ease.
    --Macaulay.

  2. Really intending what is said; being in earnest; not jesting or deceiving.
    --Beaconsfield.

  3. Important; weighty; not trifling; grave.

    The holy Scriptures bring to our ears the most serious things in the world.
    --Young.

  4. Hence, giving rise to apprehension; attended with danger; as, a serious injury.

    Syn: Grave; solemn; earnest; sedate; important; weighty. See Grave. [1913 Webster] -- Se"ri*ous*ly, adv. -- Se"ri*ous*ness, n.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
seriousness

1520s, from serious + -ness.

Wiktionary
seriousness

n. The state or quality of being serious.

WordNet
seriousness
  1. n. an earnest and sincere feeling [syn: earnestness, sincerity]

  2. the quality of arousing fear or distress; "he learned the seriousness of his illness" [syn: distressfulness]

  3. the trait of being serious; "a lack of solemnity is not necessarily a lack of seriousness"- Robert Rice [syn: earnestness, serious-mindedness, sincerity] [ant: frivolity]

Wikipedia
Seriousness

Seriousness (noun; adjective: serious) is an attitude of gravity, solemnity, persistence, and earnestness toward something considered to be of importance. Some notable philosophers and commentators have criticised excessive seriousness, while others have praised it. Seriousness is often contrasted with comedy, as in the seriocomedy. In the theory of humor, one must have a sense of humor and a sense of seriousness to distinguish what is supposed to be taken literally or not, or of being important or not. Otherwise, it may also be contrasted with a sense of play. How children learn a sense of seriousness to form values and differentiate between the serious and that which is not is studied in developmental psychology and educational psychology. There is a distinction between the degree of seriousness of various crimes in sentencing under the law, and also in law enforcement. There is a positive correlation with the degree of seriousness of a crime and viewer ratings of news coverage. What is or is not considered serious varies widely with different cultures.

Sometimes fields studying degrees of seriousness overlap, such as developmental psychology studies of development of the sense of degrees of seriousness as it relates to transgressions, which has overlap with criminology and the seriousness of crimes.

Usage examples of "seriousness".

The Slavic groups are apparently slowly being assimilated, but even if they disappeared entirely, the remaining Culturally-parasitic groups would comprise a pathological condition of the utmost seriousness for America.

Shouby is frequently quoted as an authority because he speaks like one and because what he hypostasizes is a sort of mute Arab who at the same time is a great word-master playing games without much seriousness or purpose.

His music occupies a middle ground between the melodiousness of the Italian composers of the early part of the century and the seriousness of later German opera.

There was no longer any mistaking that the seriousness meant some kind of trouble.

With Pilar he had luck and seriousness: she is entire, has many dimensions, and will last a long time, precisely because he had the perfect person, Pastora Imperio, to invent her from.

Earlier than anticipated, Charlie-Charlie Rackett had deputised two men capable of seriousness when seriousness was called for.

The National Conscription Act reinstituted the draft in the summer of 1940, convincing everyone of the seriousness of the situation and the inevitability of the war.

Meanwhile, it became clear to Shettles that until the night of their arrests, Damien and Jason had never fully appreciated the seriousness of their situation.

When I emphasized the seriousness of the unruptured left eardrum, he cut me off, saying he would see the child Monday morning.

It is, possibly, the aptest contrast with the seriousness of our hero and heroine.

Our two cars were surrounded by a circle of spectators, their silent faces watching us with enormous seriousness.

Honor asked with an edge of seriousness after the chuckles had subsided.

As nearly all of the prominent Fenian leaders had been placed under arrest for transgression of United States laws, and quite a number of their deluded followers who were captured in Canada were confined in Canadian prisons awaiting trial, the seriousness of their offences began to dawn upon the minds of those implicated in the movement.

Other would-be deserters would look at those flyblown heads with their staring eyes and think twice about the seriousness of their service to the King.

Again, there is that Jamesian note of seriousness and jokiness lying unresolved together.