What's the difference between fatuous and frivolous?

Fatuous


Definition:

  • (a.) Feeble in mind; weak; silly; stupid; foolish; fatuitous.
  • (a.) Without reality; illusory, like the ignis fatuus.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There certainly has been a danger that the dispute could be diverted into a chauvinistic blind alley, not least because of the cue given by Brown's cynical and fatuous use of the British National Party's slogan "British jobs for British workers", which was then thrown back in his face by the strikers.
  • (2) So far, the president has been more fatuous than fascistic, though he belatedly realized what an albatross the bill had become.
  • (3) Yet such is Britain's fatuously entitled "war on drugs".
  • (4) First, Brazil did not have any penalty appeals against Mexico , so the media’s thick-headed behaviour could not have triggered the inevitable payback on this occasion, rendering Scolari’s complaint somewhat fatuous, at least in terms of what had just happened.
  • (5) But likewise, insisting on economic deprivation, as though that is the sole context and alone explains their motivations, is only marginally less fatuous.
  • (6) It's not quite believable that height is unimportant to Sellar, although he's right that it's fatuous to chase superlatives, given that the Shard does not quite equal the 82-year-old Chrysler building in New York.
  • (7) Iran's religious minorities are arrested on fatuous charges, endure trials that violate the state's own due process, are jailed on unproven convictions and tortured in prison.
  • (8) Even if you think the Twitter storms about political “misspeaks” and “gaffes” are fatuous, consider what you did not hear after the PM’s outburst last week.
  • (9) This involves tight prioritisation – allowing yourself a certain amount of time per task – and trying not to get caught up in less productive activities, such as unstructured meetings that tend to take up lots of time.” We’ve all been there, wishing we weren’t stuck in the same room as a bunch of fatuous blowhards – or, as Michael Foley puts it in his superb book The Age of Absurdity , “the colleagues who speak at length in every meeting, in loud confident tones that suggest critical independence, but never deviate from the official line”.
  • (10) In addition, these studies also risk annoying the project's youngsters by asking them questions they perceive to be intrusive or fatuous.
  • (11) The prize in his view, though, is "not about who's the best: I think that's fatuous".
  • (12) When Phillips first spoke of sleepwalking 10 years ago , even David Miliband tut-tutted, calling his concerns “fatuous”.
  • (13) In this respect, the idea of "saving for the nation" is fatuous, jingoistic nonsense.
  • (14) ■ "Wittering inanity", "Fatuous", "Pass the jubilee sickbag".
  • (15) Shaun Spiers Chief executive, Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) • The government’s plans to build 13,000 houses for sale at just 20% off ludicrous market values is a fatuous response to the biggest housing crisis since the second world war.
  • (16) All the money and clothes and fatuous conversation have driven Bateman mad, we might think.
  • (17) "Let us quit this indecent exercise of fatuous plaints, including raising hopes, even now, with talk of 'posthumous' conferment, when you know damned well that the Nobel committee does not indulge in such tradition.
  • (18) Not a Brexit conspiracy, but assuredly an inspiration for Boris Johnson’s fatuous and burbling battle cry of “ Independence day !” Now the Tory leadership campaign has begun and, incredibly, movie advertising is again playing its role.
  • (19) A failure to recognise this distinctiveness was well demonstrated in last year's fatuous talk about the Olympics' "growth dividend".
  • (20) In the decades that followed, Frost became a media personality and comedian, as comfortable cross-examining the most heavyweight political figures of the day as hosting Through the Keyhole, the show typifying the fatuousness of celebrity culture, in which panellists were given a video tour of a mystery famous guest's property and asked to identify the owner from the evidence.

Frivolous


Definition:

  • (a.) Of little weight or importance; not worth notice; slight; as, a frivolous argument.
  • (a.) Given to trifling; marked with unbecoming levity; silly; interested especially in trifling matters.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world’s leading centre of Islamic learning, called on Muslims to “ignore the nasty frivolity” of the latest edition.
  • (2) Kleiner Perkins’ lawyer Lynne Hermle said in closing arguments that Pao’s claims were “meritless and frivolous”.
  • (3) In this Article the Author endorses countersuits as the most appropriate response to frivolous medical malpractice actions.
  • (4) A spokesman for the UK's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the treaty's provisions are designed to discourage frivolous investor-state disputes.
  • (5) The scent of grilled seafood and herbs; a refreshing salad; some tiny potatoes with summer herbs and a frivolous dessert of fruit and cream is not too much to ask.
  • (6) I’m hoping the stadium is well policed and I’m hoping we will be OK.” The hope, then, is the night will bring as dramatic a reckoning as can be served by that wonderful frivolity, a football match.
  • (7) But he said he found complaints about the system frivolous, noting that the existence of superdelegates “should not have been a surprise to either” candidate.
  • (8) Legally Blonde Beneath its fluffy and frivolous exterior, Legally Blonde has feminism coming out the proverbial.
  • (9) It would be lamentable if one consequence of the fictitious abortion requests made by the Telegraph were to add fuel to this view, implying that real women's requests for abortion are frivolous or unconsidered.
  • (10) To fuse an object of feminine adornment, of frivolity, with a bullet: that is Khaled's story, the reason behind her image's enduring power.
  • (11) Fringed by horse chestnut, sycamore and maple trees – which conservationists say could succumb in future – the garden is dark and shocking amid the frivolous yellows and pinks of most of Chelsea's other exhibits.
  • (12) In order to comprehend the controversy, it is necessary to take on account the process that has been followed for the concepts formation, by no one manner it can be taken with frivolity and less to under-value it.
  • (13) Naturally enough, the New Snobbery is not restricted to the more frivolous end of our pop culture.
  • (14) The beauty salon is a place of frivolity to where they can briefly escape and put the world to rights before returning home at the end of the day with a fresh perspective and a bouncier perm.
  • (15) On Wednesday Lively described the legal action as absurd and frivolous.
  • (16) Rory Carroll (@rorycarroll72) Zuckerberg channels Aristotle #facebook : 'A lot of the world thinks being connected is frivolous.
  • (17) Critics cited the law – a " distorted " version – and as the online debate gathered momentum, even Godwin himself appeared in the comments section of Greenwald's articles, explaining that his law sought to "discourage frivolous, but not substantive, Nazi analogies and comparisons".
  • (18) Anytime anyone wants to argue for tort reform (usually right wingers who want to protect giant corporations from the little man who is out to get them), or impose more restrictions on our freedom of movement, the case is trotted out as an example of America's addiction to frivolous law suits.
  • (19) The candidate to cosmetic surgery is not, contrary to a too common idea, a frivolous creature trying to become more beautiful.
  • (20) A Zimbabwean hunter who led the expedition that killed Cecil the lion has described charges against him as frivolous.