gravity

[ grav-i-tee ]

See synonyms for gravity on Thesaurus.com

noun,plural grav·i·ties.

the force of attraction by which terrestrial bodies tend to fall toward the center of the earth.
heaviness or weight.

gravitation in general.
acceleration of gravity.
a unit of acceleration equal to the acceleration of gravity. Symbol: g
serious or critical nature: He seemed to ignore the gravity of his illness.
serious or dignified behavior; dignity; solemnity: to preserve one's gravity in the midst of chaos.
lowness in pitch, as of sounds.

Origin of gravity

First recorded in 1500–10; from Latin gravitāt-, stem of gravitās “heaviness”; equivalent to grave² + -ity

Other words for gravity

6	seriousness, danger, emergency, import

See synonyms for gravity on Thesaurus.com

Other words from gravity

non·grav·i·ty, noun, plural non·grav·i·ties.

Words Nearby gravity

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use gravity in a sentence

The findings, published in Science last week, provide the first concrete evidence that stars' gravities can carve bizarre and fantastic shapes in planet-forming disks, providing new insight into how planets are born in bizarre orbits.
A strange dusty disk could hide a planet betwixt three stars | Paola Rosa-Aquino | September 11, 2020 | Popular-Science
For example, physics icon Isaac Newton was wrong about gravity.
A secret of science: Mistakes boost understanding | Rachel Kehoe | September 10, 2020 | Science News For Students
The force we experience as gravity actually results from the curving of spacetime.
Could ripples in spacetime point to wormholes? | Emily Conover | August 24, 2020 | Science News For Students
In Einstein’s theory of general relativity, you think of the graviton as a massless particle, and so the force of gravity also has an infinite range.
The Physicist Who Slayed Gravity’s Ghosts | Thomas Lewton | August 18, 2020 | Quanta Magazine
The more stars the cluster loses, the less gravity it has to hold on to its remaining members.
Milky Way’s tidal forces are shredding a nearby star cluster | Ken Croswell | August 18, 2020 | Science News For Students

So not only will the GOP have control in the Senate, it will move the center of gravity on Capitol Hill hard to starboard.
The Democrats’ Black Hole—and What They Can Do About It | Michael Tomasky | December 31, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
In the spring of 1933, few perceived Nazism with the gravity he did.
The Catholic Philosopher Who Took on Hitler | John Henry Crosby | December 26, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
The powerful forces of gravity and magnetism channel matter into huge flattened spinning platters known as accretion disks.
The Black Hole Tango | Matthew R. Francis | November 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Landing on any other world is hard, but Comet 67P is especially challenging, even apart from the low gravity.
Earthlings, We Landed on a Comet | Matthew R. Francis | November 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
You also seem to be fond of the way the film treated gravity—as opposed to your reservations about the film gravity.
Neil deGrasse Tyson Breaks Down ‘Interstellar’: Black Holes, Time Dilations, and Massive Waves | Marlow Stern | November 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
The specific gravity is most conveniently estimated by means of the urinometer—Squibb's is preferable (Fig. 14).
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell Todd
One frequently wishes to ascertain the specific gravity of quantities of fluid too small to float an urinometer.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell Todd
She would never forget it; but realizing its gravity, she decided thereupon never to tell it—the dream—to anybody.
The Homesteader | Oscar Micheaux
Gordon, however, had never been a lover, and if Bernard noted Angela's gravity it was not because he felt jealous.
Confidence | Henry James
The specific gravity method is very useful when special instruments are not at hand.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell Todd

British Dictionary definitions for gravity

gravity

/ (ˈɡrævɪtɪ) /

nounplural -ties

the force of attraction that moves or tends to move bodies towards the centre of a celestial body, such as the earth or moon
the property of being heavy or having weight: See also specific gravity, centre of gravity

another name for gravitation
seriousness or importance, esp as a consequence of an action or opinion
manner or conduct that is solemn or dignified
lowness in pitch
(modifier) of or relating to gravity or gravitation or their effects: gravity wave; gravity feed

Origin of gravity

C16: from Latin gravitās weight, from gravis heavy

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for gravity

gravity

[ grăv′ĭ-tē ]

The fundamental force of attraction that all objects with mass have for each other. Like the electromagnetic force, gravity has effectively infinite range and obeys the inverse-square law. At the atomic level, where masses are very small, the force of gravity is negligible, but for objects that have very large masses such as planets, stars, and galaxies, gravity is a predominant force, and it plays an important role in theories of the structure of the universe. Gravity is believed to be mediated by the graviton, although the graviton has yet to be isolated by experiment. Gravity is weaker than the strong force, the electromagnetic force, and the weak force. Also called gravitation See more at acceleration relativity.

a closer look

With his law of universal gravitation, Sir Isaac Newton described gravity as the mutual attraction between any two bodies in the universe. He developed an equation describing an instantaneous gravitational effect that any two objects, no matter how far apart or how small, exert on each other. These effects diminish as the distance between the objects gets larger and as the masses of the objects get smaller. His theory explained both the trajectory of a falling apple and the motion of the planets-hitherto completely unconnected phenomena-using the same equations. Albert Einstein developed the first revision of these ideas. Einstein needed to extend his theory of Special Relativity to be able to understand cases in which bodies were subject to forces and acceleration, as in the case of gravity. According to Special Relativity, however, the instantaneous gravitational effects in Newton's theory would not be possible, for to act instantaneously, gravity would have to travel at infinite velocities, faster than the speed of light, the upper limit of velocity in Special Relativity. To overcome these inconsistencies, Einstein developed the theory of General Relativity, which connected gravity, mass, and acceleration in a new manner. Imagine, he said, an astronaut standing in a stationary rocket on the Earth. Because of the Earth's gravity, his feet are pressed against the rocket's floor with a force equal to his weight. Now imagine him in the same rocket, this time accelerating in outer space, far from any significant gravity. The accelerating rocket pushing against his feet creates a force indistinguishable from that of a gravitational field. Developing this principle of equivalence, Einstein showed that mass itself forms curves in space and time and that the effects of gravity are related to the trajectories taken by objects-even objects without mass, such as light. Whether gravity can be united with the other fundamental forces understood in quantum mechanics remains unclear.

Cultural definitions for gravity

gravity

Another term for gravitation, especially as it affects objects near the surface of the Earth.

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