What's the difference between levity and witty?

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.

Witty


Definition:

  • (n.) Possessed of wit; knowing; wise; skillful; judicious; clever; cunning.
  • (n.) Especially, possessing wit or humor; good at repartee; droll; facetious; sometimes, sarcastic; as, a witty remark, poem, and the like.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This House , his witty political drama set in the whips' office of 1970s Westminster, transferred from the National's Cottesloe theatre to the Olivier, following critical acclaim.
  • (2) That merriment is not just tankards and quaintness and mimsy Morris dancing, but a witty, angry and tender fire at the centre of Englishness.
  • (3) Witty's comments came as GSK unveiled lower first half sales and profits, and a further £500m of cost cuts by the end of 2015.
  • (4) We encourage people to speak up if they have concerns" #gsk July 24, 2013 12.29pm BST Witty says this investigation is "quite different" to the whistleblower claims the company recently investigated and found no evidence of wrongdoing.
  • (5) Pauline Kael, when reviewing the film, said, "Jane Fonda has been a charming, witty, nudie cutie in recent years, and now gets a chance at an archetypal character.
  • (6) His works are witty rather than wise, pacey not profound.
  • (7) Mohamedou Ould Slahi: “smart, witty, garrulous, and curiously undamaged” Another team inside the plane dragged me and fastened me on a small and straight seat.
  • (8) While researching his forthcoming book, A History of the World in Twelve Maps , Brotton sometimes brought up the "one-to-one map" idea, from Borges and Carroll, with people at Google, but they didn't find it particularly witty or intriguing.
  • (9) But I do try to find the good in everybody," Parton says perkily, and later proves it by describing Sylvester Stallone – her co-star in the deservedly little-seen 1984 film Rhinestone – as "just a nut, but so witty!".
  • (10) Best known in this country as the author of a large number of witty and provocative books - and as the Reith lecturer in 1966 - Galbraith was professor of economics at Harvard University from 1949 until his retirement in 1975, but was equally well known in the US as a distinguished civil servant and longtime, tireless adviser and campaigner for liberal Democrats and their causes.
  • (11) Critics who saw Budapest at the Berlin film festival, where it premiered this month, have called it "vibrant and imaginative" , "nimblefooted, witty" , and as a sucker for Anderson's stuff since his early days, I'd agree.
  • (12) He duly obliged and the crowd was treated to the first look at Age of Ultron, starting with a witty interchange between the Avengers as each, enjoying a drink and dressed in civilian clothing, tries to lift Thor’s hammer.
  • (13) Witty backed the prime minister’s efforts to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s EU membership.
  • (14) In an interview with the Observer , Witty said: "While the chief executive of the company could move, maybe the top 20 directors could move, what about the 16,000 people who work for us?
  • (15) And, in any case, Preston is obviously bright and witty and engaging.
  • (16) There is something very Avaazian about the crisistunity, I come to think, in that it's borrowed something slick and witty from popular culture and re-purposed it for something which used to be called the Greater Good.
  • (17) Sometimes, when stood by the bar, caught in the witty back-and-forth between two strange men, it feels like you're out in bad weather without a hat.
  • (18) Scottish Ballet: The Nutcracker In recent years, Christmas at Scottish Ballet has been defined by Ashley Page’s witty, acerbic re-writes of the 19th century classics.
  • (19) Seen as a warm and witty liberal, he founded the parliamentary bicycle pool and has earned the moniker the "bicycling baronet" (the Youngs featured on a British Rail poster promoting the transport of bicycles by rail in 1982).
  • (20) Witty was optimistic that “ultimately there are going to be some pragmatic decisions made” that would ensure companies were able to attract global talent.