Harshness
WordNet
noun
(1) Excessive sternness
"Severity of character"
"The harshness of his punishment was inhuman"
"The rigors of boot camp"
(2) The quality of being cruel and causing tension or annoyance
(3) The roughness of a substance that causes abrasions
(4) The quality of being unpleasant (harsh or rough or grating) to the senses
WiktionaryText
Noun
- The quality of being harsh.
- 1891 And yet these harshnesses are tenderness itself when compared with the universal harshness out of which they grow; the harshness of the position towards the temperament, of the means towards the aims, of to-day towards yesterday, of hereafter towards to-day. Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Part 6.