Severity describes how serious a risk event would be if it occurred and is commonly used to prioritize remediation. In practical risk management, severity reflects the operational consequence of an event, such as service disruption, data loss, regulatory exposure, financial damage, or safety concerns. Likelihood and probability both describe the chance that the event will occur, not the seriousness of the result. Impact is closely related, but severity is the scoring label often used to express the overall seriousness of the risk in a risk register, vulnerability report, or risk matrix. For Security+, severity helps determine which risks require immediate treatment and which can be accepted, monitored, or deferred.