gravitas

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"The ones that appeal to me have a sense of focus and a kind of gravitas, an ability to appeal to larger issues without getting corny."

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Definitions (3)

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  1. noun Substance; weightiness: a frivolous biography that lacks the gravitas of its subject.
  2. noun A serious or dignified demeanor: "Our national father figure needs gravitas, [but] he's pitched himself as the kid brother” (John Leo).

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Examples (50)

  • Step an inch outside of the primary colors, and the gravitas is gone, lost to a script that fails to pack an insane amount of nuance into a crowded 160-minute-long running time. —  DVD Talk
  • On record he comes off like a gravitas-rich cross between Ian Curtis, but tonight it sounds like an army of frogs are perched on his vocal chords. —  Filter Magazine
  • Such a tendency may have served him well as a journalist (although arguably not as a science or medical journalist), but it would not serve the nation well in a Surgeon General, who must persuade the nation with clear, science-based arguments, gravitas, and moral authority. —  Lloydletta's Nooz and Comments
  • In other words, Palin lacks substance, gravitas, and brings nothing but good looks and white trashy pulp culture to her position. —  Sundries
  • It doesn't matter what kind of poltroon parks his or her butt in the Oval Office, or how they get in there; they will be presented to the people as a figure of moral authority and gravitas -- and be accepted as such by large swathes of the public. —  Chris Floyd - Empire Burlesque
 

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Etymologies (1)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin gravitās, heaviness, seriousness; see gravity.
 

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