"seriousness" in the noun sense
1. earnestness, seriousness, sincerity
an earnest and sincere feeling
2. seriousness, distressfulness
the quality of arousing fear or distress
"he learned the seriousness of his illness"
3. seriousness, earnestness, serious-mindedness, sincerity
the trait of being serious
"a lack of solemnity is not necessarily a lack of seriousness"- Robert Rice
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
Princeton University "About WordNet®."
WordNet®. Princeton University. 2010.
View WordNet® License