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Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday March 14, 2000

gravitas \GRAV-uh-tahs\, noun:
High seriousness (as in a person's bearing or in the treatment of a subject).

At first sight the tall, stooped figure with the hawk-like features and bloodless cheeks, the look of extreme gravitas, seems forbidding and austere, the abbot of an ascetic order, scion of an imperial family who has foresworn the world.
-- John Lehmann, "T.S. Eliot Talks About Himself and the Drive to Create", New York Times, November 9, 1953

And we want to tell our readers about sharp, clever books, utterly lacking in gravitas, that we know will delight them on the beach or the bus.
-- Benjamin Schwarz, "(Some of) the best books of 2001", The Atlantic, December 2001

Gravitas is from the Latin gravitas, "heaviness, seriousness," from gravis, "heavy, serious."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for gravitas

 

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