W o t D - Levity

Pronunciation: le-vê-ti

Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural)


Meaning: 1. Mild frivolity, slight joviality or jocularity, a lack of seriousness required by the circumstances. 2. Lightness, insubstantial weight.

Notes: English has several words for a happy state characterized by joking, mentioned in the Meaning above: frivolity, joviality, jocularity, and levity. Levity is almost always used to refer to joviality at an inappropriate time or place. While it has no immediate family, this word is distantly related to a substantial number of borrowed words in English, some of which are mentioned in the Word History.

In Play: Today's word can be used where levity is appropriate: "This party is getting lethargic: will someone please add a bit of levity to it!" However, levity has a connotation of frivolity where frivolity does not belong: "Snail racing is a serious matter and this race will have to be called off if we cannot control the levity!"