gravity means senses relating to seriousness.; Of an activity such as a ceremony, a person's conduct, etc.: the quality of being deeply serious and solemn, especially in a dignified manner; seriousness, solemnity; (countable, archaic or obsolete) a serious or solemn thing, such as a matter, a comment, etc. It carries an Arena rating of 1908, earned across 9 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, gravity ranks #746 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #806 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #2,890 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #3,269 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
gravity is pronounced /ˈɡɹævɪti/.
Why “gravity” is a great word
The quality of being profoundly serious, solemn, or of having significant importance or consequence. From the Latin gravitās ("heaviness, weight; seriousness"), from gravis ("heavy, weighty, serious"). Unlike "levity" (its airy antithesis of humor and frivolity) or "solemnity" (which suggests a formal, often ceremonial dignity), gravity is the serious weight inherent to a situation itself. It is the silence that falls after a terminal diagnosis, the slow, downward pressure of a moral debt, or the way a judge’s black robe seems not just to hang but to pull upon the shoulders. It is the heavy, unrelenting pull of consequence upon the human soul, the body's memory of falling.
Etymology
Borrowed from French gravité (“seriousness, solemnity; severity; (physics) gravity”), or from its etymon Latin gravitās (“heaviness, weight; seriousness; severity”), equivalent to grave (“serious”) + -ity (suffix forming nouns, especially abstract nouns). Gravitās is derived from gravis (“heavy; grave, serious”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷreh₂- (“heavy”)) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns indicating states of being). The English word was first used figuratively, and gained the senses relating to physical qualities in the 17th century. Doublet of gravitas.
noun
- Senses relating to seriousness.; Of an activity such as a ceremony, a person's conduct, etc.: the quality of being deeply serious and solemn, especially in a dignified manner; seriousness, solemnity; (countable, archaic or obsolete) a serious or solemn thing, such as a matter, a comment, etc.
- Senses relating to seriousness.; Of an activity, situation, words, etc.: the quality of having important or serious consequences; importance, seriousness.e.g.“I hope you appreciate the gravity of the situation.”
- Senses relating to seriousness.; Authority, influence, weight; also, used as a title for a person with authority or influence.
- Senses relating to physical qualities.; The lowness in pitch of a note, a sound, etc.
- Senses relating to physical qualities.; Synonym of gravitation (“the fundamental force of attraction which exists between all matter in the universe that tends to draw bodies towards each other, due to matter causing the curvature of spacetime”); also, a physical law attempting to account for the phenomena of this force.e.g.“Aristotelian gravity Newtonian gravity”
- Senses relating to physical qualities.; Synonym of g-force (“the acceleration of a body relative to the freefall acceleration due to any local gravitational field, expressed in multiples of g0 (the mean acceleration due to gravity (sense 2.2.1) at the Earth's surface)”).
- Senses relating to physical qualities.; Dated except in centre of gravity: specific gravity or relative density (“a dimensionless measure which is the ratio of the mass of a substance to that of some reference substance (chiefly an equal volume of water at 4°C)”); also, heaviness, weight.
- Senses relating to physical qualities.; The tendency to have weight and thus move downwards, formerly believed to be an inherent quality of some objects.
- Senses relating to physical qualities.; The quality of being unable or unwilling to move quickly; heaviness, sluggishness.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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