What's the difference between jocular and serious?

Jocular


Definition:

  • (a.) Given to jesting; jocose; as, a jocular person.
  • (a.) Sportive; merry.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) As the contest meandered and the stadium went close to quiet there was a jocular moment when Pardew hopped in irritation at a United challenge and the manager dropped his ever-present notebook on the pitch.
  • (2) The tone was jocular, but the intent deadly serious, as becomes clear talking to Jón and Einar Örn Benediktsson, who used to sing alongside Björk in the Sugarcubes and is now Reykjavik's head of culture and tourism.
  • (3) You kindly suggested that it would be helpful if I put them in writing – despite the Freedom of Information Act!” A jocular reference?
  • (4) Welby, who was enthroned as a bishop last November, presented a jocular, relaxed face to the press as he appeared for the first time at Lambeth Palace, surrounded by the portraits of archbishops past.
  • (5) At this time I can’t say anything about transfers,” he said before turning jocular.
  • (6) The cast of The Five vacillated between feigned solemnity and jocular NFL pregame oafishness.
  • (7) Until now, the answer would have been for Network Rail to simply borrow: its spending on the never-never has largely escaped public attention, despite the industry jocularly speaking of the "Network Rail credit card".
  • (8) Alito was not amused by Kagan’s jocular stand for precedent, and declared the original Brulotte “a bald act of policymaking”.
  • (9) The tone was jocular, but the president’s words on Friday betrayed mounting frustration with opponents in his own party who could derail perhaps the biggest domestic policy goal of his last two years in office.
  • (10) The auteur that's matched Malick for headlines this year, Lars von Trier, banned by the festival's board of directors after mounting a jocular defence of Adolf Hitler in an official press conference, was given a consolation prize of sorts when Kirsten Dunst picked up the award for best actress for her part in Melancholia.
  • (11) Poroshenko’s treatment in Washington will also invite comparison to Trump’s warm and jocular Oval Office meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Moscow’s ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, on May 10, the day after firing the FBI director, James Comey.
  • (12) An overjoyed Mark Sampson was in jocular mood after his England side reached a significant milestone in their history, posting their first knockout stage victory in any World Cup finals with a 2-1 win over Norway in Ottawa.
  • (13) Catch it on one of the 300-odd UK screens it opened across yesterday, and witness a jocular salute to the redemptive power of youth, rebellion and getting fucked-up.
  • (14) Although schizoaffective manic patients resembled manics in their tendency to show combinatory thinking, their productions lacked the jocularity of the manics.
  • (15) It all sounds too easy, a bit jocular, there's more assertion than proof.
  • (16) Derived from The Wizard of Oz , the term "friend of Dorothy" (or FOD) was for many years a carefully guarded euphemism in homosexual circles, until in the 1980s it began to be used openly and jocularly.
  • (17) Last summer he described his development as a writer in a typically jocular column for the Guardian Review book club, which featured the first of his Culture novels, Use of Weapons.
  • (18) Trust in John Whittingdale, the culture secretary, has not been bolstered by jocular remarks envisaging the BBC’s demise as “a tempting prospect” .
  • (19) Corbyn will face May at prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons for the first time on Wednesday, and said he expected it to be a less jocular affair than under David Cameron.
  • (20) Indeed in the course of a single phone call he would veer alarmingly from bonhomie, to bullying, to pleading and then back to a jocular mood.

Serious


Definition:

  • (a.) Grave in manner or disposition; earnest; thoughtful; solemn; not light, gay, or volatile.
  • (a.) Really intending what is said; being in earnest; not jesting or deceiving.
  • (a.) Important; weighty; not trifling; grave.
  • (a.) Hence, giving rise to apprehension; attended with danger; as, a serious injury.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This should not be a serious limitation to the application of the RIA in the detection of venous thrombosis.
  • (2) But the wounding charge in 2010 has become Brown's creation of a structural hole in the budget, more serious than the cyclical hit which the recession made in tax receipts, at least 4% of GDP.
  • (3) "There is a serious risk that a deal will be agreed between rich countries and tax havens that would leave poor countries out in the cold.
  • (4) Confidence is the major prerequisite for a doctor to be able to help his seriously ill patient.
  • (5) No report can be taken seriously if its authors weren’t even in Yemen to conduct investigations.” The UN team was not given permission to enter the country.
  • (6) The decline in the frequency of serious complications was primarily due to a decrease in the proportion of patients with open fractures treated with plate osteosynthesis from nearly 50% to 19%.
  • (7) Vancomycin is the antibiotic of choice for serious MRSA infections; PRPs and cephalosporins generally are not effective.
  • (8) An age- and education-matched group of women with no family history of FXS was asked to predict the seriousness of problems they might encounter were they to bear a child with a handicapping condition.
  • (9) The most serious complications following operative treatment are retained bile duct calculi (2.8%), wound infection and biliary fistulae.
  • (10) Guardian Australia reported last week that morale at the national laboratory had fallen dramatically, with one in three staff “seriously considering” leaving their jobs in the wake of the cuts.
  • (11) In case of biliary and pancreatic duct obstruction with pure pancreatic reflux, both oedema and inflammatory infiltrations were evident, whereas, in the presence of biliary reflux too, more serious histological features were detected.
  • (12) Autopsy revealed serious somatic diseases (stenosis of the ileum in two cases and brain tumor in one); their symptoms had been largely overlapped by those of anorexia nervosa.
  • (13) The above treatment is tolerated well and no serious side effects have been observed.
  • (14) This observation seriously challenges the hypothesis that SCE cancellation results as a consequence of persistence of the lesions induced by these agents.
  • (15) Earlier recognition of foul-smelling mucoid discharge on the IUD tail, or abnormal bleeding, or both, as a sign of early pelvic infection, followed by removal of the IUD and institution of appropriate antibiotic therapy, might prevent the more serious sequelae of pelvic inflammation.
  • (16) Left ventricular rupture is a serious complication of mitral valve replacement.
  • (17) Other serious complications were reservoir perforation during catheterisation in 3 and development of stones in the reservoir in 2 patients.
  • (18) For application to mammalian cells, however, two serious problems require resolution: (1), correction of TPP+ binding to intracellular constituents and (2), estimation of the considerable TPP+ accumulation in mitochondria.
  • (19) At least 1 episode of serious infection occurred in 34 of the 60 adult patients and 25 of the 30 children.
  • (20) These high Danish rates seem to reflect the true prevalence and incidence in the less serious types of progressive muscular dystrophy, probably because the Danish health system with free medical care and easy access to specialized hospital departments makes it possible to identify all cases of progressive muscular dystrophy.