requiring effort or concentration; complex and not easy to answer or solve; "raised serious objections to the proposal"; "the plan has a serious flaw"
of great consequence; "marriage is a serious matter"
concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities; "a serious student of history"; "a serious attempt to learn to ski"; "gave me a serious look"; "a serious young man"; "are you serious or joking?"; "Don't be so serious!"
upright in position or posture; "an erect stature"; "erect flower stalks"; "for a dog, an erect tail indicates aggression"; "a column still vertical amid the ruins"; "he sat bolt upright"
expressing or feeling or resulting from sympathy or compassion or friendly fellow feelings; disposed toward; "sympathetic to the students' cause"; "a sympathetic observer"; "a sympathetic gesture"
(of characters in literature or drama) evoking empathic or sympathetic feelings; "the sympathetic characters in the play"
of or relating to the sympathetic nervous system; "sympathetic neurons"; "sympathetic stimulation"
aware or expressing awareness of things as they really are; "a realistic description"; "a realistic view of the possibilities"; "a realistic appraisal of our chances"; "the actors tried to create a realistic portrayal of the Africans"
of or relating to the philosophical doctrine of realism; "a realistic system of thought"