levity

American  

[lev-i-tee] / ˈlɛv ɪ ti /

noun

• levities
  plural

1. lightness of mind, character, or behavior; lack of appropriate seriousness or earnestness.

   Synonyms:

   giddiness, triviality, flippancy, frivolity

2. an instance or exhibition of this.

   Synonyms:

   giddiness, triviality, flippancy, frivolity

3. fickleness.

4. lightness in weight.

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levity British  

/ ˈlɛvɪtɪ /

noun

1. inappropriate lack of seriousness

2. fickleness or instability

3. archaic lightness in weight

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• levities
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

levity levities

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

Velvet-coated sculptures of cactuses and otherworldly beaded plants provide some of the much needed levity that the show so hopes to achieve.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

"We felt there needed to be a sense of relief and levity for the audience. So, we can ease in and out of it. Otherwise, it's a lot."

From BBC ● Jul. 9, 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

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

But the literature of the Germans and their romance originals, aim at courtly levities; they artificialize sentiment and thought, as well as manner.

From Studies in Medi?val Life and Literature by Edward Tompkins McLaughlin

He assumed certain 'levities'—I suppose the word will do—to mean more than levities; he construed indiscretions into grave faults, and faults into crimes.

From The Fortunes Of Glencore by Charles James Lever

"Only when such levities fitted into each other so accurately as to show plan and contrivance."

From A Rent In A Cloud by Charles James Lever

"Are the mere levities with which I amused an hour to be recorded against me as principles?"

From A Rent In A Cloud by Charles James Lever

I wonder if, in the midst of the stammered and blurted incoherences, the lapses and levities, of this quaint book, a sort of "orientation," as the theologians say now, has emerged at all?

From Visions and Revisions A Book of Literary Devotions by John Cowper Powys

Related Words

• frivolity
• giddiness
• hilarity
• mirth
• repartee