- Rigor is something strict, severe or demanding.
- Harsh and strict treatment in the military for cadets is an example of rigor.
- Freezing weather and ice are examples of the rigors of winter.
- Difficult and challenging academic courses are an example of academic rigor.
rigor
noun
- harshness or severity; specif.,
- strictness or inflexibility: the rigor of martial law
- extreme hardship or difficulty: the rigors of life
- inclemency, as of weather
- exactness in precision or accuracy; exactitude
- a severe, harsh, or oppressive act, etc.
- stiffness; rigidity; specif., a condition of rigidity in body tissues or organs, in which there is no response to stimuli
- a shivering or trembling, as in the chill preceding a fever
Origin of rigor
Middle English ; from Middle French rigueur ; from Classical Latin rigor ; from rigere: see rigidBrit. sp. rigour
rigor
noun
- a. Strictness or severity, as in action or judgment: “The desert fostered a closed world of faith and rigor and harsh judgment: almost every decision here could have lethal consequences” (Jeffrey Tayler).b. A harsh or trying circumstance; a hardship or difficulty: the rigors of working in a coal mine. See Synonyms at difficulty.c. Archaic A harsh or severe act.
- a. Strictness in adhering to standards or a method; exactitude: “To study the brain with scientific rigor, behaviorists logically restricted their experiments to ones in which the brain was the source of measurable effects” (Robert Pollack).b. A standard or exacting requirement, as of a field of study: the intellectual rigors of advanced mathematics.
- Medicine Shivering or trembling, as caused by a chill.
- Physiology A state of rigidity in living tissues or organs that prevents response to stimuli.
- Obsolete Stiffness or rigidity.
Origin of rigor
Middle English rigour, from Old French, from Latin rigor, from rigēre, to be stiff; see reig- in Indo-European roots.rigor
Noun
(countable and uncountable, plural rigors)
- US spelling of rigour.
- (slang) an abbreviated form of rigor mortis.
Origin
From Old French, from Latin rigor (“stiffness, rigidness, rigor, cold, harshness”), from rigere (“to be rigid”).
