Noun: sternness sturn-nus
- Uncompromising resolution
"The teacher's sternness kept the class in order";
- strictness
- The quality (as of scenery) being grim and gloomy and forbidding
"the sternness of his surroundings made him uncomfortable"
Type of: asperity, grimness, hardship, restrictiveness, rigor [US], rigorousness, rigour [Brit, Cdn], severeness [rare], severity, unpermissiveness