Synonyms for stern
- adjective
- noun
Most common
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Grim — grim and forbidding in appearance
dour, gruff, forbidding, gloomy, sullen, serious, somber US, sombre UK, lugubrious, grave, unmoved, sad, bleak, saturnine, morose, staid, rugged, dire, forlorn, melancholy, icy, sober, joyless
2. Unrelenting
unrelenting, hard, rigid, tough, unyielding, cruel, uncompromising, implacable, unforgiving, inflexible, unsympathetic, unkind, stony, relentless, inexorable, unappeasable, unbending, stiff, pitiless, obdurate, unfeeling, heartless
Other
Noun
1. Rear
rear, bottom, tail, seat, behind, pratt, butt, back-side, ass, can, posterior, tail-end, bum, fanny, rump, fundament, derriere, buns, tush, nates, tooshie, arse vulgar
Other
Definitions
- adj. 1
Grim and forbidding in appearance.
The remark earned me a stern rebuke.
- adj. 2
Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
- n. 1
The rear part (after end) of a ship or other vessel.
Holonyms: watercraft < vessel
- n. 2
The post of management or direction.
Related words
- Word family
- sternity sternly sternness sterncastle sternsman sternward sternwards
- Phrases
- pink stern stern chaser
- Is a kind of
- alexithymic serious
Forms
- Plural
- sterns → rears, bottoms, tails, seats…
Choose the right word
Stern unites harshness and authority with strictness or severity; stern, as said even of inanimate objects, suggests something authoritative or forbidding.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- forbidding There is a very strict rule forbidding smoking in bed.
- somber We heard somber hollow sounds from the cave.
- gruff Yanni looks gruff but he's a very nice guy.
- dour Tom's dour silence said more than any words could.
- rigid Ziri came across as overly rigid and unreasonable.
- unrelenting We're in the second week of an unrelenting heatwave.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| stern | rising | |
| forbidding | steady | |
| somber | rising | |
| gruff | rising | |
| dour | rising | |
| rigid | falling |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 3 letters
- can1, ass1, sad1, bum1, icy2, aft1
- 4 letters
- hard1, seat1, rear1, tail1, butt1, dire1, poop1, arse1, buns1, rump1, dour2, tush1
- 5 letters
- tough1, grave1, cruel2, harsh1, stark1, sober2, stiff1, rigid2, pratt1, fanny2, bleak1, stony2, gruff1, staid1
- 6 letters
- behind2, bottom2, severe2, strict1, rugged2, gloomy2, somber2, unkind2, sombre, sullen2, morose2
- 7 letters
- serious3, quarter2, austere2, forlorn2, ascetic3, unmoved2, joyless, tooshie
- 8 letters
- rigorous3, exacting3, pitiless3, derriere, obdurate3
- 9 letters
- demanding3, stringent2, posterior3, heartless2, unfeeling3, unbending3, fundament, saturnine
- 10 letters
- relentless3, melancholy4, forbidding3, inflexible4, unyielding3, implacable4, inexorable5, lugubrious4
- 11 letters
- unforgiving4, unrelenting4
- 12 letters
- unappeasable
- 13 letters
- unsympathetic5
- 14 letters
- uncompromising5
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (icy2 = 2 syllables).