[Vocabulary] severe/ serious

[hitinvo]

According to dictionary.reference.com, severe means: serious or stern in manner or appearance
serious means: of grave or somber disposition, character, or manner: a serious occasion
Could you help me figure the difference between them?
Thanks,

 

[stanislaw.masny]

According to dictionary.reference.com, severe means: serious or stern in manner or appearance
serious means: of grave or somber disposition, character, or manner: a serious occasion
Could you help me figure the difference between them?
Thanks,

Serious - thoughtful, solemn, earnest, sincere, of importance, giving cause
for concern.
- to be serious about sth,
- is he serious about her.

Severe - strict, rigorous, hard to do, harsh, austere, extreme.
- we had severe winter last year,
-it was the extremely severe headache.
S.M.

 

[Jaskin]

hi,
Please note I'm not a teacher nor a native speaker,

As the words are synonyms I find very helpful to have a look at the collocation.
So as they are adjectives lets have some fun and list the nouns that goes often with each word :-D :
BNC link

"Severe" has a nice pattern if we look at the nouns which it describes.

WORD 1: SEVERE

1 WEATHER
2 [STRIKE]LEARNING[/STRIKE]
3 OESOPHAGITIS
4 DISABILITIES
5 REFLUX
6 PANCREATITIS
7 WINTERS
8 [STRIKE]ALLOWANCE[/STRIKE]
9 PAINS
10 RESTRICTIONS
11 DEMENTIA
12 HYPOGLYCAEMIA
13 ASTHMA
14 DIARRHOEA
15 SENTENCE it's mainly a prison sentence
16 URGENCY
17 HANDICAPS
18 STORM
19 DISABLEMENT
20 ABNORMALITIES
21 LIVER
22 EPISODES
23 FROST
24 HYPERTENSION
25 INFLAMMATION
26 MALARIA
27 MALNUTRITION
28 REPRESSION
29 REPRIMAND
30 WINTER
31 POVERTY
32 ARTHRITIS
33 COLD
34 COLITIS
35 GALES
36 HEADACHES
37 HEPATITIS
38 TRAUMA
39 HEADACHE
40 PAIN
41 DYSPLASIA
42 ENTERITIS
43 GALE
44 LIMITS
45 RETARDATION
46 SENTENCES
47 STENOSIS
48 TURBULENCE
49 STRAIN
50 DROUGHT
51 PUNISHMENT
52 CONSTIPATION
53 STORMS
54 STYLE I don't really get that
55 ANAEMIA
56 CLIMATE
57 FROSTS
58 KNOCK
59 LESIONS
60 PRUNING
61 DISABILITY
62 HARDSHIP
63 PRESSURES
64 BEATINGS
65 EARTHQUAKE
66 ECONOMIES
67 FLUCTUATIONS
68 IMMUNODEFICIENCY
69 IMPAIRMENTS
70 JOLT ???
71 MIGRAINE
72 PNEUMONIA
73 PORTAL hypertension
74 [STRIKE]PREMIUM[/STRIKE]
75 PROVOCATION
76 RAIN
77 SPASTICITY
78 RECESSION
79 SANCTIONS
80 WEIGHT loss
81 STRESS
82 DEPRESSION
83 [STRIKE]STOMACH[/STRIKE]
84 BURN
85 RESTRICTION
86 [STRIKE]ANGLE[/STRIKE] ???
87 ANGINA
88 ALTERATION
89 ARTERIOPATHY
90 ANOREXIA
91 BRUISES
92 [STRIKE]BUDGET[/STRIKE]
93 CLIMATES it's not about the weather
94 [STRIKE]CONTEST[/STRIKE] ??
95 CUTBACKS
96 DEAFNESS
97 DISCHARGES
98 DROP
99 DYSPNOEA
100 ENEMIES

red - health related nouns
Blue - weather related
[STRIKE]strike[/STRIKE] - N/A mainly used as adj
no colour - I just didn't know how to classify them.

Cheers.

 

[chester_100]

According to dictionary.reference.com, severe means: serious or stern in manner or appearance
serious means: of grave or somber disposition, character, or manner: a serious occasion
Could you help me figure the difference between them?
Thanks,

Words have primary and secondary meanings. Sometimes their secondary meanings happen to be synonymous with those of other words.
-Serious: dangerous and important.
-Severe: dangerous, harsh, unpleasant.

So when something is harsh, painful, extremely dangerous, we can use severe.
When something is dangerous, and calls our attention to its bad effects, and requires us to do something about it, we can use serious to describe that thing.

 

[Barb_D]

When ti comes to describing appearance, the words can be close to synonyms.

She had a serious/severe look on her face.

If I saw someone who looked serious, I might wonder if something was wrong.
If I saw someone who looked severe, I might be afraid to approach her.