levity
Americannoun
-
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
-
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.
The founding partner of Levity Live is the guiding force behind comedians Bert Kriescher, Taylor Tomlinson, Jeff Dunham and more.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2024
Producer and aerialist Katie Herndon, from Levity Arts, wanted to create a collaborative space where people could come together and be inspired.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 24, 2023
By the time he and his business partner Mark Lonow sold their company to Levity Entertainment Group in 2018, there were more than 20 Improvs across the country, including in D.C.
From Washington Post • Nov. 14, 2022
Levity is a good look out in the world but infantilization, not so much.
From New York Times • Sep. 15, 2021
For Levity, read, Lepidity, —— and that a very little, and that very necessary, if not unavoydable.
From The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America by Ward, Nathaniel
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.
