Crossword clues for levity
levity
- Tax collecting – it could show lack of seriousness
- Lack of seriousness
- Light humor
- Serious discussion's lack
- Lighthearted banter
- Lack of gravitas
- Lack of appropriate seriousness
- Humor that might defuse a tense situation
- Humor regarding a serious matter
- Flippant talk
- Disrespectful treatment of a serious matter
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Levity \Lev"i*ty\ (l[e^]v"[i^]*t[y^]), n. [L. levitas, fr. levis light in weight; akin to levare to raise. See Lever, n.]
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The quality of weighing less than something else of equal bulk; relative lightness, especially as shown by rising through, or floating upon, a contiguous substance; buoyancy; -- opposed to gravity.
He gave the form of levity to that which ascended; to that which descended, the form of gravity.
--Sir. W. Raleigh.This bubble by reason of its comparative levity to the fluidity that incloses it, would ascend to the top.
--Bentley. -
Lack of gravity and earnestness in deportment or character; trifling gayety; frivolity; sportiveness; vanity. `` A spirit of levity and libertinism.''
--Atterbury.He never employed his omnipotence out of levity.
--Calamy. -
Lack of steadiness or constancy; disposition to change; fickleness; volatility.
The levity that is fatigued and disgusted with everything of which it is in possession.
--Burke.Syn: Inconstancy; thoughtlessness; unsteadiness; inconsideration; volatility; flightiness.
Usage: Levity, Volatility, Flightiness. All these words relate to outward conduct. Levity springs from a lightness of mind which produces a disregard of the proprieties of time and place.Volatility is a degree of levity which causes the thoughts to fly from one object to another, without resting on any for a moment. Flightiness is volatility carried to an extreme which often betrays its subject into gross impropriety or weakness. Levity of deportment, of conduct, of remark; volatility of temper, of spirits; flightiness of mind or disposition.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"want of seriousness, frivolity," 1560s, from Latin levitatem (nominative levitas) "lightness, frivolity," from levis "light" in weight (see lever) + -ity.
Wiktionary
n. 1 Lightness of manner or speech, frivolity. 2 (context obsolete English) Lack of steadiness. 3 The state or quality of being light, buoyancy. 4 (context countable English) A lighthearted or frivolous act.
WordNet
n. feeling an inappropriate lack of seriousness [ant: gravity]
lightness of manner
Wikipedia
Levity is a 2003 drama film directed by Ed Solomon. Its theatrical release was on April 4. The score for this film was composed by Mark Oliver Everett of the band Eels. Levity was filmed in Montreal, Canada.
Levity is a soundtrack produced by Mark Oliver Everett for the 2003 film of the same name. Two of the tracks were used for the film Knocked Up.
Levity may refer to
- a sense of amusement, the opposite of gravitas
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Levity (film)
- Levity (soundtrack), the soundtrack for the film of the same name
- Levity Entertainment Group, a production, branding, and entertainment company based in Los Angeles
Usage examples of "levity".
Dierick, who has attached himself to Jacques as a sort of amanuensis with pretensions to Boswellian status, pursed his lips in disapproval of such out-of-place levity.
Koreish would have restored the idols of the Caaba, if their levity had not been checked by a seasonable reproof.
Among these there is one which in all its characteristics is polarically opposite to the Euclidean system, and which is destined for this reason to become the space-system of levity.
I believe Honour could never have prevailed on her to leave Upton without her seeing Jones, had it not been for those two strong instances of a levity in his behaviour, so void of respect, and indeed so highly inconsistent with any degree of love and tenderness in great and delicate minds.
The grave simplicity of the philosopher was ill calculated to engage her wanton levity, or to fix that unbounded passion for variety, which often discovered personal merit in the meanest of mankind.
Exasperated by this apparent neglect, the Sarmatians soon forgot, with the levity of barbarians, the services which they had so lately received, and the dangers which still threatened their safety.
This fact, seen together with the characteristics of radioactivity, tells us that in such elements gravity has so far got the upper hand of levity that the physical substance is unable to persist as a spatially extended, coherent unit.
Barnard, Dean of Derry, now Bishop of Killaloe, drew up an address to Dr. Johnson on the occasion, replete with wit and humour, but which it was feared the Doctor might think treated the subject with too much levity.
Our next task will be to develop a clearer conception of these four modes of action of levity.
Those Barbarians despised in then turn the restless and subtile levity of the Orientals, the authors of every heresy.
The levity of the words were belied by the cool watchful expression on his face as his eyes constantly travelled the room.
In fact, some days afterwards she created him Duke of Orkney, and on the 15th of the same month--that is to say, scarcely four months after the death of Darnley--with levity that resembled madness, Mary, who had petitioned for a dispensation to wed a Catholic prince, her cousin in the third degree, married Bothwell, a Protestant upstart, who, his divorce notwithstanding, was still bigamous, and who thus found himself in the position of having four wives living, including the queen.
Both fields are characterized by an interaction between gravity and levity, this interaction being of opposite nature in each of them.
Burnet apologized for the levity with which he had conducted some of his arguments, by the excuse that he wrote in a learned language for scholars alone, not for the vulgar.
But he that deliberates, is so farre forth free, nor can be said to have already given: But if he promise often, and yet give seldome, he ought to be condemn'd of levity, and be called not a Donour, but Doson.