This week we continue our vocabulary-building series, “The Closing Word.” Each week we provide a new word to help build your vocabulary and show you an example of how to use it.
This week’s closing word:
Pronounced: (ahs-TEER)
Adjective:
1. severely simple
2. practicing great self-denial
3. of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor; forbidding in aspect
It’s useful to remember that austere rhymes with severe. It’s the severity that adds the extreme (and often negative) meaning to the word.
Example:
“When the sellers had moved out, it was clear some home staging was necessary to blunt the austere look and feel of the home.”
