austerity
/ɔˈstɛɹɪti/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.41 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Severity of manners or life; extreme rigor or strictness; harsh discipline.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The most rigid and noted of the English ladies resident in the French capital acknowledged and countenanced her; the virtuous Lady Elderbury, the severe Lady Rockminster, the venerable Countess of Southdown—people, in a word, renowned for austerity, and of quite a dazzling moral purity:—so great and beneficent an influence had the possession of ten (some said twenty) thousand a year exercised upon Lady Clavering’s character and reputation"
- "One critic [Madeleine Schwartz] recently noted that the politics of Rooney’s novels were largely “gestural,” with airy mentions of Gaza or austerity protests but not much radical substance."
- "The war-torn first half of the 20th century, together with the railway grouping of 1923, ushered in further austerity in design."
- "After millenniums of austerity and poverty, the age of limitless “superabundance” was at hand."
- "He said France clearly wanted to "close one page and open another". He reiterated his opposition to austerity alone as the only way out of Europe's crisis: "My final duty, and I know I'm being watched from beyond our borders, is to put Europe back on the path of growth and employment.""
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɔˈstɛɹɪti/