Synonyms for serious

Synonyms for (adj) serious

Synonyms: dangerous, grave, grievous, life-threatening, serious, severe

Definition: causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm

Usage: a dangerous operation; a grave situation; a grave illness; grievous bodily harm; a serious wound; a serious turn of events; a severe case of pneumonia; a life-threatening disease

Similar words: critical

Definition: being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency

Usage: a critical shortage of food; a critical illness; an illness at the critical stage


Synonyms: serious

Definition: requiring effort or concentration; complex and not easy to answer or solve

Usage: raised serious objections to the proposal; the plan has a serious flaw

Similar words: difficult, hard

Definition: not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure

Usage: a difficult task; nesting places on the cliffs are difficult of access; difficult times; why is it so hard for you to keep a secret?


Synonyms: serious

Definition: of great consequence

Usage: marriage is a serious matter

Similar words: important, of import

Definition: of great significance or value

Usage: important people; the important questions of the day


Synonyms: serious, good

Definition: appealing to the mind

Usage: good music; a serious book

Similar words: intellectual

Definition: appealing to or using the intellect

Usage: satire is an intellectual weapon; intellectual workers engaged in creative literary or artistic or scientific labor; has tremendous intellectual sympathy for oppressed people; coldly intellectual; sort of the intellectual type; intellectual literature


Synonyms: serious

Definition: concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities

Usage: a serious student of history; a serious attempt to learn to ski; gave me a serious look; a serious young man; are you serious or joking?; Don't be so serious!

Similar words: sincere, solemn, earnest

Definition: characterized by a firm and humorless belief in the validity of your opinions

Usage: both sides were deeply in earnest, even passionate; an entirely sincere and cruel tyrant; a film with a solemn social message


Similar words: sober, solemn, sedate, grave

Definition: dignified and somber in manner or character and committed to keeping promises

Usage: a grave God-fearing man; a quiet sedate nature; as sober as a judge; a solemn promise; the judge was solemn as he pronounced sentence


Similar words: overserious

Definition: excessively serious


Similar words: real

Definition: not to be taken lightly

Usage: statistics demonstrate that poverty and unemployment are very real problems; to the man sleeping regularly in doorways homelessness is real


Similar words: thoughtful, serious-minded

Definition: acting with or showing thought and good sense

Usage: a sensible young man


Similar words: sobering

Definition: tending to make sober or more serious

Usage: the news had a sobering effect


Similar words: solid

Definition: of a substantial character and not frivolous or superficial

Usage: work of solid scholarship; based on solid facts


Visual thesaurus for serious