austerity

Universal Words noun (plural austerities) 1 [U] a situation when people do not have much money to spend because there are bad economic conditions: War was followed by many years of austerity. * austerity measures and economic reforms 2 [U] the quality of being austere: the austerity of the monks' life 3 [C,usually pl.] something that is part of an austere way of life: the austerities of wartime Europe