What's the difference between frivolity and levity?

Frivolity


Definition:

  • (n.) The condition or quality of being frivolous; also, acts or habits of trifling; unbecoming levity of disposition.

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.

Levity


Definition:

  • (n.) Lack of steadiness or constancy; disposition to change; fickleness; volatility.
  • (n.) 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.
  • (n.) Lack of gravity and earnestness in deportment or character; trifling gayety; frivolity; sportiveness; vanity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Penetration will only occur once you have established a sense of levity, safety and trust between the both of you, plus a high level of non-penetrative eroticism.
  • (2) He’s similar in that sense to his icon Dizzee, who was always happy to balance his weightier stuff with moments of levity.
  • (3) Niemeyer’s buildings are characterised by their levity, playfulness, and curves, which are all antithetical to brutalism.
  • (4) Any such levity, however, is leavened by the tacit acknowledgment that existence is futile, and we are all just bags of flesh and bones whiling away the days before death and putrefaction sets in.
  • (5) There was more levity in a panel for the unlikely hit political drama Borgen about the intricacies of Danish coalition government, which brought together actors Sidse Babett Knudsen and Pilou Asbaek - who played prime minister Birgitte Nyborg and her spin doctor Kasper Juul.
  • (6) In Ferguson last summer, there wasn’t much levity in the days after Mike Brown was killed, either.
  • (7) In this spirit, Formation compels its viewers to acknowledge the beautiful complexity of history, culture and customs, with levity and passion.
  • (8) Perhaps he was a children's entertainer whom Ivan the Terrible enlisted in a rare moment of levity.
  • (9) They wanted someone associated with April who could inject a little humour and levity, not in a farcical way but in a real way.
  • (10) With One Love, Grande rose to the occasion with heart, strength and moments of out-of-body levity that can only come from a big pop show.
  • (11) H ow paranoid were you before you made this movie and how paranoid are you now?” That question was perhaps the only moment of levity during a conversation with documentarian Alex Gibney after the credits rolled on Zero Days, a terrifying account of the cyberwar that is already raging on thumb drives and mainframes from Washington to Tel Aviv to Isfahan Province in Iran and anywhere else that can connect to the internet.
  • (12) Klopp clearly enjoyed himself on the touchline in the closing stages and he brought a degree of levity into his post-match press conference, even offering up a suggestion for the top of journalists’ pieces.
  • (13) In a rare moment of levity during Hunt's testimony, the culture secretary was asked about an evening reception and dinner with James Murdoch where he was said to have hidden behind a tree to avoid being seen by the Wall Street Journal's Iain Martin.
  • (14) This was significant and, at the time, outrageous – in 1969, it must have seemed that seriousness had won out for good, with levity confined to novelty singles and bubblegum.
  • (15) The archaic levity tells you much about the debate, which, apart from the sponsor's opening remarks and contribution from another women in the chamber – the film-maker Baroness (Beeban) Kidron – did not even come close to articulating the change that has occurred since Tim Berners-Lee delivered his paper on a distributed hypertext system to his boss at CERN in March 1989.
  • (16) "I didn't want to have sex," says Geimer with brittle levity.
  • (17) There are moments of levity: when Bill Lincoln is giving evidence about his alibi (buying fish at Billingsgate market on Good Friday), it transpires that he is known by friends as “Billy the Fish”; James Creighton, the mate he meets when he has his regular Turkish bath, and who gives evidence on his behalf, is known as “Jimmy Two Baths”.
  • (18) They have even invented an alter ego band named The Reflektors, in which they perform wearing giant papier-mache heads of themselves, to add to the levity, and perhaps also to relieve the weight of what it means to be one of the world's biggest bands.
  • (19) He has been chairing the weekly political debates since 1994, often injecting the proceedings with some much-needed levity, and has become synonymous with the programme, ignoring constant speculation about when he might retire, and who might replace him.
  • (20) I said I liked it for its conceptual cheekiness – there can be no politics without quixotic energy and levity.

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