distressfulness vs severeness

distressfulness and severeness both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
distressfulness	Yes	No	No	No
severeness	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, severeness is a hypernym of distressfulness; that is, severeness is a word with a broader meaning than distressfulness:

distressfulness: the quality of arousing fear or distress
severeness: used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather

Other hypernyms of distressfulness include badness, severity.

distressfulness (noun)	severeness (noun)
the quality of arousing fear or distress	extreme plainness
	excessive sternness
	something hard to endure
	used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or weather