Human-verified examples from authoritative sources
Exact Expressions
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"I'm stern, but playful in my sternness".
The sternness of the instruction still resonates, but I couldn't swear that I always followed it.
His new sternness , it is widely believed, may enable Mr Pataki to leave New York in a glow to join the Bush administration, and let somebody else clean up the state's mess.If it works, Mr Pataki would like to be remembered as the man who held the line in a tough time.
Yet, with fatherly sternness , he directed Mr Bush to "Go out and win" the White House, and added a piece of sage advice: when your face is on the cover of Newsweek, you ought to smile.That such a parting could take place between cross-party rivals says a great deal about the tight bond between Mr Bush and Mr Bullock.
His wife Martha burned their correspondence after his death, doubtless to keep personal matters from the prying eyes of history.But sternness and reserve could not have been Washington's chief qualities, or he would never have risen so far.
"The advantage", says Martyn Williams of Friends of the Earth, an environmental group that has been pushing the bill for two years, "is that this doesn't leave things to distant, politically fudgeable targets".But although the idea of applying the unforgiving sternness of the law sounds attractive, it is not clear how the planned legal straitjacket is to work.
Ms Moore is like one of her characters: "sternness in one eye and gentleness in the other".
That line, delivered with an unusual sternness , looked like a clear "I'm-in-charge" message.Recent months have seen turbulent confrontations between the Kremlin and Yukos, an oil company whose now-jailed ex-boss, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, had used his financial clout to win political influence.
Another is the sternness of the IMF, which says it cannot release next month's tranche of money before it knows that the euro zone will fully fund Greece next year.
Besides, his easy manner was welcomed after the crisp, technocratic sternness of his conservative predecessor, Anibal Cavaco Silva.
Although disliked and even feared for his autocratic methods and patriarchal sternness , the commissioner held office until his death, and none of his decisions ever was reversed.
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The primary grammatical function of "sternness" is as a noun , typically used to describe the quality or state of being stern. As Ludwig AI indicates, it refers to the characteristic of being strict, firm, and uncompromising. For instance, the examples show it describing a person's demeanor or the application of rules.
Expression frequency: Very common
