What does "austerity" mean?
Austerity: Severity of manners or life; extreme rigor or strictness; harsh discipline. The austerity of John the Baptist. Milton.
Additional senses
- 2.Plainness; freedom from adornment; severe simplicity. Partly owing to the studied austerity of her dress, and partly to the lack of demonstration in her manners. Hawthorne.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00