| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | intolerant |
| Synonyms: | businesslike, demanding, direct, efficient, grave, hard, practical, rigid, serious, stern, strict |
| Main Entry: | down-to-earth |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | reasonable, practical |
| Synonyms: | common, commonsense, easy, hard, hardboiled, hardheaded, matter-of-fact, mundane, no-nonsense, plainspoken, pragmatic, rational, realistic, sane, sensible, sober, unfantastic, unidealistic, unsentimental |
| Antonyms: | excitable, excited, impractical, unreasonable, unsensible |
| Main Entry: | earnest |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | serious; very important |
| Synonyms: | close, constant, determined, firm, fixed, for real, grave, intent, mean business, meaningful, no-fooling, no-nonsense, playing hard ball, resolute, resolved, sedate, sincere, sober, solemn, somber, stable, staid, steady, thoughtful, weighty |
| Antonyms: | flippant, insincere, thoughtless, trivial, unimportant, unserious |
| Main Entry: | grave |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | serious; gloomy |
| Synonyms: | cold sober, deadpan, dignified, dour, dull, earnest, grim, grim-faced, heavy, leaden, long-faced, meaningful, muted, no-nonsense, ponderous, quiet, sad, sage, saturnine, sedate, sober, solemn, somber, staid, strictly business, subdued, thoughtful, unsmiling |
| Antonyms: | cheerful, frivolous, funny, happy, ridiculous, silly |
| Main Entry: | sedate |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | calm, collected |
| Synonyms: | cold sober, composed, cool, cool as cucumber, decorous, deliberate, demure, dignified, dispassionate, earnest, grave, imperturbable, laid-back*, no-nonsense, placid, proper, quiet, seemly, serene, serious, sober, solemn, somber, staid, steady, tranquil, unflappable, unruffled |
| Antonyms: | agitated, excitable, excited, lively, upset |
| Main Entry: | serious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | somber, humorless |
| Synonyms: | austere, bound, bound and determined, businesslike, cold sober, contemplative, deadpan, deliberate, determined, downbeat, earnest, funereal, genuine, go for broke, grave, grim, honest, intent, long-faced, meditative, no-nonsense, pensive, pokerfaced, reflective, resolute, resolved, sedate, set, severe, sincere, sober, solemn, staid, steady, stern, thoughtful, unhumorous, unsmiling, weighty |
| Antonyms: | flippant, funny, happy, light |
| Main Entry: | sincere |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | straightforward, honest |
| Synonyms: | aboveboard, actual, artless, bona fide, candid, dead-level, dear, devout, earnest, faithful, forthright, frank, genuine, guileless, heartfelt, honest to God, like it is, meant, natural, no fooling, no-nonsense, on the level, on the line, on up and up, open, outspoken, plain, pretensionless, real, regular, righteous, saintly, serious, square*, sure enough, true, true-blue, trustworthy, twenty-four carat, unaffected, undesigning, undissembled, unfeigned, unpretentious, up-front, wholehearted |
| Antonyms: | dishonest, insincere, tricky, untrustworthy |
| Main Entry: | sober |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | calm, peaceful; dull |
| Synonyms: | abnegating, abstaining, clear-headed, cold, collected, composed, constrained, cool, dark, disciplined, dispassionate, down-to-earth, drab, earnest, eschewing, forgoing, grave, hard-boiled, imperturbable, inhibited, levelheaded, low-key, lucid, no-nonsense, pacific, plain, practical, quiet, rational, realistic, reasonable, reserved, restrained, sedate, serene, serious, severe, soft, solemn, somber, sound, staid, steady, subdued, toned down, unexcited, unimpassioned, unruffled |
| Antonyms: | excited, immoderate, irrational |
| Main Entry: | solemn |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | quiet, serious |
| Synonyms: | austere, brooding, cold sober, deliberate, dignified, downbeat, earnest, funereal, glum, grave, heavy, intense, matter of life and death, moody, no fooling, no-nonsense, pensive, portentous, reflective, sedate, sober, somber, staid, stern, thoughtful, weighty |
| Antonyms: | frivolous, funny, laughing, light |