Meaning & use

austere

adjective·Advanced

Severely plain or simple, without any comfort, luxury, or decoration.

See it in a sentence

The monks lived an austere life in a small stone cell with almost no possessions.

The government introduced austere budget cuts to reduce the national debt.

A note on using this word

Austere can describe a person's strict manner, a plain style of decoration, or harsh economic policies.

Words with a similar meaning

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

luxuriouslavish

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