WordWeb Online

1. An earnest and sincere feeling
   - earnestness, sincerity
    
2. The quality of arousing fear or distress
   "he learned the seriousness of his illness";
   - distressfulness
    
3. The trait of being serious
   "a lack of solemnity is not necessarily a lack of seriousness";
   - earnestness, serious-mindedness, sincerity

See also: frivolous, serious

Type of: badness, gravity, severeness, severity, solemness, solemnity, solemnness, trait

Encyclopedia: Seriousness