levity
Americannoun
-
levities
plural
-
lightness of mind, character, or behavior; lack of appropriate seriousness or earnestness.
- Synonyms:
- giddiness, triviality, flippancy, frivolity
-
an instance or exhibition of this.
- Synonyms:
- giddiness, triviality, flippancy, frivolity
-
lightness in weight.
noun
-
inappropriate lack of seriousness
-
fickleness or instability
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archaic lightness in weight
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of levity
1555–65; < Latin levitās lightness, frivolity, equivalent to levi ( s ) light + -tās -ty 2
Explanation
Joking that your dead grandmother "never looked better" could inject some levity, or frivolity, into her funeral, but your relatives might find your joke inappropriate to the occasion. Levity literally means "lightness," and it's often an attempt to inject some lightness or humor into an otherwise somber situation. Telling your Aunt Edna a joke while she recuperates from a skiing accident could provide the levity needed to brighten her mood. Yet levity is often used to describe humor that's not appropriate to the occasion, like telling jokes during a funeral.
Vocabulary lists containing levity
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Grade 12, List 1
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The Hunger Games
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That startling theological question is among many moments of unexpected levity in “The Saviors,” Bubba Weiler’s tender and thoughtful new play about two teenage boys struggling with questions of faith and friendship.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Still, some within and around the court saw him as the court’s glue, bringing levity in his interactions with his colleagues and avoiding hard-edge commentary in his opinions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
In our dire age, a little bit of levity can often feel like a wager, staking your bets on an audience’s bandwidth for fun.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026
As a result, he injected levity into a role that could have come across as purely unsympathetic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
These elements were acted on by two forces: gravity, the tendency for earth and water to sink, and levity, the tendency for air and fire to rise.
From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking
Shall I delight him by memories of home and of long ago, or shall I shock him by the little levities of foreign manner?
From The Dodd Family Abroad, Vol. II by Lever, Charles James
She neither smiled when he was witty, nor looked shocked at his levities.
From The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly by Lever, Charles James
Once or twice he sighed at Wayne Shandon's failure to respond to his levities; and when he felt particularly unappreciated he carried his dimpling personality to the bunk house where he was hailed with delight.
From The Short Cut by Johnson, Frank Tenney
Before him no monkey-tricks, no apish indecorums—none even of those passing levities which young gorillas will indulge in just like other youths.
From Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men And Women And Other Things In General by Lever, Charles James
Sir Stafford's character was unimpeachable, her Ladyship's had nothing more grave against it than the ordinary levities of her station.
From The Daltons, Volume I (of II) Or,Three Roads In Life by Lever, Charles James
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
