Dictionary

1. (

• earnestness ,
• seriousness ,
• sincerity

) an earnest and sincere feeling ;

2. (

• seriousness ,
• distressfulness

) the quality of arousing fear or distress; "he learned the seriousness of his illness" ;

3. (

• seriousness ,
• earnestness ,
• serious-mindedness ,
• sincerity ,

) the trait of being serious; "a lack of solemnity is not necessarily a lack of seriousness"- Robert Rice ;