Meaning of serious in English

serious

adjective

/ˈsɪə.ri.əs/ us

/ˈsɪr.i.əs/

serious adjective (BAD)

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severe in effect; bad:

a serious illness

There were no reports of serious injuries.

The new tax regulations have landed some of the smaller companies in serious trouble.

Drugs have become a serious problem in a lot of schools.

This is a very serious offence.

He's been taken to hospital where his condition is described as serious but stable.

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

having a bad result or outcome

seriousHer condition is not thought to be serious.
badHe got a bad case of food poisoning.
bigOnline fraud is a big problem.
majorIt's not a major problem, but it does need to be taken care of.
graveThe public are in grave danger.

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[ after noun ] mainly Indian English

very ill

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The long hot summer has led to serious water shortages.
The drought caused serious shortfalls in the food supply.
Drunken drivers pose a serious threat to other road users.
It was a serious fall - it'll be a while before you feel up to walking again.
Strong winds had caused serious damage to the roof.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Serious and severe

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Being & falling ill

serious adjective (NOT JOKING)

not joking or intended to be funny:

Please don't laugh - I'm being serious.

He was wearing a very serious expression and I knew something was wrong.

On the surface it's a very funny novel but it does have a more serious underlying theme.

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

lacking humour and not meant to be funny

seriousShe had a serious look on her face.
earnestAt that time he was an earnest young environmental activist.
soberThe mood of the gathering was sober and reflective.
sombreUK Since their colleague died there has been a very sombre atmosphere in the office.
solemnThe two men fell silent, their faces solemn.

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A serious person is quiet, thinks carefully about things, and does not laugh a lot:

I remember her as a very serious child.

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I thought she was joking but she was deadly serious.
He was being funny but I think he was half serious.
I know it's a funny piece of writing but I think there's a serious point being made here.
Listen, I'm being serious now - this is a big problem.
He's very serious about his work.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Lacking humour

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serious adjective (DETERMINED)

[ after verb ]

determined to follow a particular plan of action:

Is she serious about going to live abroad?

[ after verb ]

If two people who have a loving relationship are serious about each other, they intend to stay with each other for a long time and possibly marry:

She's had a lot of boyfriends but Simon's the only one she's been serious about.

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Are you serious about leaving?
Was he serious about wanting a new job?
If they were serious about ending poverty they would increase the minimum wage.
You're not serious about moving house, are you
So is she serious about Anthony?

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Strong-willed

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Loving and in love

serious adjective (NEEDING ATTENTION)

B2 [ before noun ]

needing or deserving your complete attention:

That's an interesting job offer - I'd give it some serious consideration if I were you.

We've got some serious talking to do, you and me.

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I have serious concerns about her ability to do the job.
So he is a serious contender for the title?
I have serious doubts about the whole project.
This is a serious complaint - we can't just ignore it.
This is a serious matter.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Very important or urgent

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serious adjective (EXTREME)

informal

extreme in degree or amount:

We did some fairly serious walking over the weekend.

I mean we're talking serious (= a large amount of) money, right?

informal

very good of its type:

This is a serious wine, Belle, you have to try some.

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Linguistics: very & extreme

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Informal words for good

(Definition of serious from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

serious | American Dictionary

serious

adjective

/ˈsɪr·i·əs/

serious adjective (NOT JOKING)

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not joking; not intended to amuse:

You can never tell when he’s serious.

serious adjective (NEEDING ATTENTION)

needing complete attention:

That’s an interesting job offer – I’d give it serious consideration if I were you.

serious adjective (BAD)

severe in effect; bad:

Fortunately, there were no serious injuries.

serious adjective (DETERMINED)

determined to follow a particular plan of action:

Is she serious about moving to Nevada?

You have to start getting serious about your studies.

If two people who have a romantic relationship are serious about each other, they intend to continue the relationship and possibly marry.

(Definition of serious from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of serious

serious

But far too often there is risk of serious direct harm when a rigorous assessment of benefits and harms is undertaken.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This is surprising, given that questions of revenue generation affect ordinary people in basic and sometimes very serious ways.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The most serious threat to these peoples is represented by the commercial development of strategically important reserves of mineral resources.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The discovery of vortex structures in the turbulent mixing layer raises serious doubts about the validity of self-preservation arguments.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Examinations of tolerance levels indicate no serious multicollinearity between the independent variables.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, neuroleptic therapy is frequently accompanied by serious, sometimes permanent, side effects.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The lack of a precise measure of the appropriate deforestation process is a serious limitation of previous studies on the topic.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There may be serious issues of successfully storing all the knowledge and retrieving the relevant knowledge in reasonable time.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Landlords who are prepared to house benefit recipients may experience serious difficulties with the system.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Among the group of poor spellers, there were a number of children who had serious difficulties with vowel length categorization.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This issue deserves serious multidisciplinary38 investigation, which is beyond the scope of this article.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

All 5 of the patients in our series had serious structural heart disease.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Or suppose there is an identifiable group of responsible agents within a society for whom the statistical risk of serious, future harmdoing is extremely high.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

It seems unlikely that serious problems in parental functioning during childhood would suddenly be resolved as the child enters adolescence.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Ghosts may seem to elude serious scholars except as metaphor or atmosphere, but there is a surprising abundance of books about them.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of serious?

Translations of serious

in Chinese (Traditional)

壞的, 嚴重的, 糟糕的…

Meaning of serious in English

serious adjective (BAD)

serious adjective (NOT JOKING)

serious adjective (DETERMINED)

serious adjective (NEEDING ATTENTION)

serious adjective (EXTREME)

serious | American Dictionary

serious adjective (NOT JOKING)

serious adjective (NEEDING ATTENTION)

serious adjective (BAD)

serious adjective (DETERMINED)

Examples of serious

Translations of serious

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