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Levity vs Lightness - What's the difference?

levity | lightness | Related terms |

In countable terms the difference between levity and lightness

is that levity is a lighthearted or frivolous act while lightness is the product of being illuminated.

As nouns the difference between levity and lightness

is that levity is lightness of manner or speech, frivolity while lightness is the condition of being illuminated.

levity

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • Lightness of manner or speech, frivolity.
  • (obsolete) Lack of steadiness.
  • The state or quality of being light, buoyancy.
  • * F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • * Most of the confidences were unsought - frequently I had feigned sleep, preoccupation or a hostile levity...
  • * Robert Montgomery Bird:
  • * 1869 Mary Somerville, On Molecular and Microscopic Science 1.1.12:
    • Hydrogen ... rises in the air on account of its levity .
  • (countable) A lighthearted or frivolous act.
  • * '>citation
  • * '>citation
  • * '>citation

    • Antonyms

    * (l)

    References

    lightness

    English

    Etymology 1

    from light, the noun

    Noun

  • (uncountable) the condition of being illuminated
  • (uncountable) the relative whiteness or transparency of a colour
  • (countable) The product of being illuminated.

    • Etymology 2

    From (light), the adjective.

    Noun

    (-)
  • The state of having little weight, or little force.
  • Agility of movement.
  • Freedom from worry.
  • * {{quote-book, 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, chapter=The Tutor's Daughter, page=266, title= Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion
    • , passage=In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.}}
  • Levity, frivolity; inconsistency.
  • *, New York 2001, p.75:
    • Senecaaccounts it a filthy lightness in men, every day to lay new foundations of their life, but who doth otherwise?

    Anagrams

    * English words suffixed with -ness