Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun sternness

2 senses of sternness

Sense 1
sternness -- (the quality (as of scenery) being grim and gloomy and forbidding; "the sternness of his surroundings made him uncomfortable")
       => asperity, grimness, hardship, rigor, rigour, severity, severeness, rigorousness, rigourousness -- (something hard to endure; "the asperity of northern winters")

Sense 2
sternness, strictness -- (uncompromising resolution)
       => unpermissiveness, restrictiveness -- (a lack of permissiveness or indulgence and a tendency to confine behavior within certain specified limits)