Main entry: asperity, severeness, severity, hardship, grimness, rigor, rigorousness, rigour, rigourousness
Definition: something hard to endure
Usage: the asperity of northern winters
Main entry: hardship
Definition: something that causes or entails suffering
Usage: I cannot think it a hardship that more indulgence is allowed to men than to women- James Boswell; the many hardships of frontier life
Main entry: adversity, hard knocks, hardship
Definition: a state of misfortune or affliction
Usage: debt-ridden farmers struggling with adversity; a life of hardship