n 1: an earnest and sincere feeling [syn: earnestness, sincerity]
2: the quality of arousing fear or distress; "he learned the
seriousness of his illness" [syn: distressfulness]
3: the trait of being serious; "a lack of solemnity is not
necessarily a lack of seriousness"- Robert Rice [syn: earnestness, serious-mindedness, sincerity] [ant: frivolity]