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"severe" is also used as a crossword clue. If that's what you saw, the answer is often stringent (9 letters).
Definitions
Very serious, harsh, or intense.
Word origin
From Middle French, from Latin severus (“severe, serious, grave in demeanor”).
Used in a sentence
“In the severer cases of hookworm the patient sometimes has an appetite for soil, paper, hair, clay, chalk, starch, and other unpalatables.”
“Parkinsonism, at its severest, presents itself as an akinetic amimia (as opposed to certain cortical disorders which are amimic akinesias).”
“a severe taskmaster”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer2 curated clues
01“Harsh or intense”6 letters
02“Very serious or harsh”6 letters
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