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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Roughness or harshness, as of surface, sound, or climate: the asperity of northern winters.
  2. n. Severity; rigor.
  3. n. A slight projection from a surface; a point or bump.
  4. n. Harshness of manner; ill temper or irritability.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Roughness of surface; unevenness: opposed to smoothness.
  2. n. Roughness of sound; harshness of pronunciation.
  3. n. Harshness of taste; sourness.
  4. n. Roughness or ruggedness of temper; crabbedness; bitterness; severity: as, to chide one with asperity; “asperity of character,” Landor.
  5. n. Disagreeableness; unpleasantness; difficulty: as, “the acclivities and asperities of duty,” Barrow, Sermons, III. xlii.
  6. n. Synonyms Acrimony, Harshness, etc. See acrimony.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Roughness as of stone or weather.
  2. n. Something that is harsh and hard to endure.
  3. n. Harshness, as of temper.
  4. n. A part of a geological fault line that does not move. Earthquakes begin and end at asperities.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Roughness of surface; unevenness; -- opposed to smoothness.
  2. n. Roughness or harshness of sound; that quality which grates upon the ear; raucity.
  3. n. Roughness to the taste; sourness; tartness.
  4. n. Moral roughness; roughness of manner; severity; crabbedness; harshness; -- opposed to mildness.
  5. n. Sharpness; disagreeableness; difficulty.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. harshness of manner
  2. n. something hard to endure

Etymologies

  1. Middle English asperite, from Old French asprete, from Latin asperitās, from asper, rough.

Examples

  • “I recall the asperity with which this easy out (Kushner's "God is not all-powerful") was dismissed by Yehuda Bauer, the former head of the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, when I asked him about it in Jerusalem.”

    Disaster Ignites Debate: 'Was God In the Tsunami?'

  • “With all its merits, there are those who have thought that there was one thing in the declaration to be regretted; and that is, the asperity and anger with which it speaks of the person of the king; the industrious ability with which it accumulates and charges upon him all the injuries which the colonies had suffered from the mother country.”

    Thomas Jefferson, a Character Sketch

  • “Professor Brack deals with the question of Hawkins's "asperity" toward Johnson in his introduction.”

    The Powers of Dr. Johnson

  • “She'd been through the spellin'-book wunst, and had got as fur as 'asperity' on it a second time.”

    The Hoosier Schoolmaster

  • “The New York Times noted his asperity when dealing with Apple's competitor, Microsoft, "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste," he said.”

    The Huffington Post: Rev. James Martin, S.J.: St. Steve Jobs? Probably Not, But….

  • “I was mulling this when God spoke to me again, this time in a voice every bit as clear but now tinged with a hint of asperity: "Just go do what I'm sending you to do.”

    The Huffington Post: Eliot Daley: My Memo To Atheists: Why I Choose God

  • “That's nice -- as one of my Catholic friends put it with some asperity, she was glad Catholicism "was working out for him.”

    The Huffington Post: Doug Bandow: Should Christians Ask: Who Would Jesus Vote For?

  • “Its interest, when changes in the world are inevitable and necessary, is to assist so that the changes "if possible, may be accomplished without war; or, if war occurs, that its duration and asperity be lessened.”

    The Wall Street Journal: From Disraeli to 'the Bang-Bang'

  • “Bernard Lewis, the renowned scholar of Islam and the Middle East, has noted with asperity that whereas, in a majority-Christian country like the United States, an English-language biographer of Jesus enjoys total latitude to say what he will and as he will, his counterpart working on a biography of Muhammad must look fearfully over his shoulder every step of the way.”

    SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Collectibles - Part 1002

  • “Oh, I know what you're drivin 'at," Bert said with asperity.”

    CHAPTER V

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Comments

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  • yarb "Is it so important that you should be sure?" she finally questioned.

    "Not to you, naturally," he returned with involuntary asperity.

    - Edith Wharton, The Reef Jun 19, 2008

‘asperity’ has been looked up 2478 times, loved by 12 people, added to 77 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 13.