| Main Entry: | |
| 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: | acute |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | very important |
| Synonyms: | afflictive, critical, crucial, dangerous, decisive, desperate, dire, essential, grave, serious, severe, sudden, urgent, vital |
| Notes: | acute is used for a sudden onset and short duration; chronic is for conditions that are slow to develop and of long duration acute is an angle of less than 90 degrees; obtuse is one of more than 90 degrees chronic is contrasted with acute as chronic pain persists over a longer period of time than acute pain and is resistant to most medical treatments |
| Antonyms: | not serious, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | austere |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | severe in manner |
| Synonyms: | ascetic, astringent, cold, earnest, exacting, forbidding, formal, grave, grim, hard, harsh, inexorable, inflexible, obdurate, rigid, rigorous, serious, sober, solemn, somber, stern, stiff, strict, stringent, unfeeling, unrelenting |
| Antonyms: | bland, calm, gentle, meek, mild |
| Main Entry: | bad |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | severe |
| Synonyms: | disastrous, distressing, grave, harsh, intense, painful, serious, terrible |
| Notes: | badly is an adverb to describe an activity; bad is an adjective to describe a condition or state |
| Main Entry: | big |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | important |
| Synonyms: | big league, big-time, consequential, considerable, eminent, heavy-duty, heavyweight, influential, leading, main, major league, material, meaningful, momentous, paramount, popular, powerful, prime, principal, prominent, serious, significant, substantial, super, super colossal, valuable, weighty |
| Antonyms: | blah, bland, dull, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | big league |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | important |
| Synonyms: | big-time, chief, critical, crucial, exceptional, four-star, front-page, grave, great, heavy, high-power, major-league, playing hard ball, professional, serious, strictly business |
| Main Entry: | businesslike |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | efficient, professional |
| Synonyms: | accomplished, careful, concentrated, correct, diligent, direct, disciplined, earnest, effective, enterprising, expeditious, hardworking, industrious, intent, matter-of-fact, methodical, orderly, organized, painstaking, practical, practiced, purposeful, regular, routine, sedulous, serious, skillful, systematic, thorough, well-ordered, workaday |
| Antonyms: | amateur, disorganized, inefficient, unbusinesslike, unprofessional |
| Main Entry: | composed |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | calm, collected |
| Synonyms: | at ease, calmed, clearheaded, commonsensical, confident, cool, cool as cucumber, disimpassioned, dispassionate, easy, easygoing, have one's act together, imperturbable, keeping a stiff upper lip, keeping one's shirt on, levelheaded, nonchalant, not turn a hair, placid, poised, possessed, quieted, relaxed, repressed, sedate, self-assured, self-possessed, sensible, serene, serious, soothed, staid, suppressed, sure of oneself, temperate, together, tranquil, unflappable, unruffled, untroubled |
| Antonyms: | agitated, angered, annoyed, aroused, distressed, excited, perturbed, upset, worried |
| Main Entry: | consequential |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | significant |
| Synonyms: | big, considerable, eventful, far-reaching, grave, important, material, meaningful, momentous, serious, substantial, weighty |
| Antonyms: | inconsequential, insignificant, uneventful, unimportant |