noun
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the quality or condition of being vivacious
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rare (often plural) a vivacious act or expression
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of vivacity
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin vīvācitās, equivalent to vīvāc- (stem of vīvāx long-lived, lively, equivalent to vīv ( us ) alive ( see vital) + -āx adj. suffix) + -i- -i- + -tās -ty 2
Explanation
If someone says you're full of vivacity, that means you have high spirits and are full of life. Your vivacity makes you a great comedic actor because you attack the stage with endless energy. Vivacity comes from the Latin vīvācitāt-, meaning "life force," and shares a root with the word vital. You may know from medical dramas that if someone's vital signs are not good, that means he's dying. But if he is full of vivacity, that means the opposite: he's totally energetically fully alive! If you don't have much vivacity, don't become a motivational speaker.
Vocabulary lists containing vivacity
"The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
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A Streetcar Named Desire
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Stories of Ourselves
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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:
To put it plainly: Julian’s imitations lacked the vivacity that made his art unique, resulting in an uncanny dissonance between idea and result.
From Salon ● Apr. 17, 2026
She said the 76-year old mother-of-four and grandmother-of-five was "a phenomenal person - full of vivacity and fun".
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2024
Jeffers and Hay have a strong chemistry, and they make Peter and Winona’s vivacity and pain feel equally real, even when the movie around them is shading toward the phony.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2023
Langlois de Swarte, his tone clear but with an appealing hint of wiry bite, played with vivacity and wit.
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2023
Susan Calvin rose to her feet with a vivacity almost girlish.
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
Karl, beaming at his companions in his old way, but rattling off French vivacities without the faintest trace of accent.
From Stories in Light and Shadow by Bret Harte
My cousin's vivacities began to languish and the silence seemed to shape itself into a receptacle for my verdict.
From Crucial Instances by Edith Wharton
He busied himself instead with a wonderful series of pictures, mostly of no great size, in which he showed an astonishing command over vivacities of technique and modulations of colour.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 6 "Foraminifera" to "Fox, Edward" by Various
Pardon me certain vivacities of style, which I had not time to correct, and plunge boldly into the heart of the book.
From The Roman Question by Edmond About
Bearing this in mind, the reader will perhaps excuse certain small vivacities, sallies that meet fools with their folly, masking the main attack.
From On the Art of Writing Lectures delivered in the University of Cambridge 1913-1914 by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
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.
