''austere'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''austere'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260714000159-00-⌔

austere - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

austere (comparativeausterer or more austere, superlativeausterest or most austere)

• Grim or severe in manner or appearance.
  • ✤ Synonyms: stern, strict, forbidding, ascetic; see also Thesaurus: stern
  • ✤ The headmistress was an austere old woman.
  • ✤ Even the austere philosopher Immanuel Kant of Koenigsberg, it is said, whose habits were so regular that the citizens of that town set their watches by him, postponed the hour of his afternoon stroll when he received the news [of the fall of the Bastille], thus convincing Koenigsberg that a world-shaking event had indeed happened.¹
• Lacking decoration; trivial; not extravagant or gaudy.
  • ✤ Synonyms: simple, plain, unadorned, unembellished; see also Thesaurus: unadorned
  • ✤ Antonyms: overwrought, flamboyant, extravagant, gaudy, flashy; see also Thesaurus: gaudy
  • ✤ The interior of the church was as austere as the parishioners were dour.
  • ✤ So we come, at above street level, into the city, and to Canterbury East Station (9.8 miles). It is an austere, rather barn-like structure, with a high roof over the two platforms.²
• Adhering to the economic policy of austerity.
  • ✤ Counterintuitively, in an effort to be austere and save money, cities which only remove a crossing every couple of years manage to be way less efficient at it than Melbourne has been.³
• Harsh; astringent.
  • ✤ It is like a small plum, nearly globular in shape, black covered with a bluish bloom, and with a very austere taste.⁴

Etymology

From Ancient Greek αὐστηρός (austērós, “bitter, harsh, astringent”), having the specific meaning “making the tongue dry” (originally used of fruits, wines), related to αὔω (aúō, “to singe”), αὖος (aûos, “dry”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ɒˈstɪə(ɹ)/, /ɔːˈstɪə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA: /ɔˈstiɹ/, enPR: ôstēr′
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA: /ɑˈstiɹ/
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

Printed 2026-07-14.

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Footnotes

1. 1962, Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution, page 61: ↩

2. 1958 October, Rev. A. W. V. Mace, “From Faversham to Dover—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 670: ↩

3. 2024 December 14, Reece Martin, “Learning from Melbourne’s Level Crossing Removal Project” (9:05 from the start), in RMTransit ‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩

4. 1862, Charles Pierpoint Johnson, The Useful Plants of Great Britain, page 85: ↩

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