Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday March 19, 2002
levity \LEV-uh-tee\ , noun:
1. Lightness of manner or speech, especially when inappropriate or excessive; frivolity.
2. Lack of steadiness or constancy; changeableness.
They sat there in their formal bargeman's rig . . . looking solemn: they were part of a ceremony, and levity, winking, whispering, smiling, had no place in it.
-- Patrick O'Brian, The Hundred Days
I must say that if the doctor was indulging in levity at my expense, it is a levity I find in the worst possible taste.
-- Alfred Alcorn, Murder in the Museum of Man
Levity is from Latin levitas, from levis, "light."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for levity
