Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The quality or condition of being illuminated.
- n. The dimension of the color of an object by which the object appears to reflect or transmit more or less of the incident light, varying from black to white for surface colors and from black to colorless for transparent volume colors.
- n. The state or quality of having little weight or force.
- n. Ease or quickness of movement; agility.
- n. Ease or cheerfulness in manner or style.
- n. Freedom from worry or trouble.
- n. Lack of appropriate seriousness; levity.
- n. Delicacy or subtlety in craft, performance, or effect.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state or quality of being light or bright.
- n. The state or quality of being light in weight; lack of heaviness or gravity: as, the lightness of a burden; the lightness of cork or of hydrogen.
- n. In cookery, sponginess; the state of being well raised; freedom from sogginess.
- n. Freedom from heaviness or clumsiness in act or execution; dexterity; nimbleness; agility: as, lightness of touch in painting or music; lightness of foot in running or dancing.
- n. Inconstancy; unsteadiness; fickleness.
- n. Levity; wantonness; unchastity.
- n. Light-headedness.
- n. Synonyms Briskness, sprightliness, ease, facility, swiftness.
- n. 4, Volatility, Frivolity, etc. (see levity), instability, giddiness, airiness.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable the condition of being illuminated
- n. uncountable the relative whiteness or transparency of a colour
- n. countable The product of being illuminated.
- n. The state of having little weight, or little force.
- n. Agility of movement.
- n. Freedom from worry.
- n. Levity, frivolity; inconsistency.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The state, condition, or quality, of being light or not heavy; buoyancy; levity; fickleness; nimbleness; delicacy; grace.
- n. Illumination, or degree of illumination.
- n. Absence of depth or of duskiness in color
WordNet 3.0
- n. a feeling of joy and pride
- n. the gracefulness of a person or animal that is quick and nimble
- n. the property of being comparatively small in weight
- n. having a light color
- n. the visual effect of illumination on objects or scenes as created in pictures
- n. the trait of being lighthearted and frivolous
Etymologies
- From light, the adjective. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Extreme portability and lightness is what I am looking for.”
Netbook Purchase? « PurpleSlog – Awesomeness & Modesty Meets Sexy
“I left musing on whether being free of a long tradition and the weight of expectations helped confer a certain lightness on the performance; there was a quality of excitement about the whole evening, an idea that something really worthwhile had happened, that I don't always get at orchestral concerts.”
“The nuts add a bit of a crunch and the rice krispies, while not dramatic themselves, add a certain lightness to the cookies.”
“While she lacks a certain lightness, she gives a very athletic and powerful performance.”
The Queen, while not in the spring of youth, is far from dead
“And finally, lightness is reflected in visual images that acquire “emblematic value.””
“WASHINGTON Timothy Goebel skated with a certain lightness of being Tuesday in the men's short program in the World Figure Skating Championships.”
“By the word lightness one does not mean colour or weight, but looseness.”
“Excellent paste for fruit or meat pies may be made with two-thirds of wheat flour, one-third of the flour of boiled potatoes, and some butter or dripping, the whole being brought to a proper consistence with warm water, and a small quantity of yeast added when lightness is desired.”
Confederate Receipt Book: A Compilation of over One Hundred Receipts, Adapted to the Times
“They bring in lightness and color without adding a lot of frills to the buildings,” she said.”
“Tuesday's gala chose Ravel to represent the idea of lightness and fun.”
The Washington Post: NSO offers a gala pleasingly out of the ordinary
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lightness’.
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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Adoption agency
"Orphan" words - words in the database but unlisted.
If you would like to adopt one of these words, please leave your request in the comments, along with details of the home environmen...office girls, porperate, prep school, veruncular, metrokiner, chromomania: yellow, foul away, jibberish, cynyc, debbie and warren, perlmutt, cumuls and 244 more...
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HorsesintheSouth
Words pertaining to horses, equines, equestrians
horse, equine, equestrian, dressage, hunter, jumper, puissance, capriole, sidepass, levade, augurian, coop and 296 more...
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Calvino
Words found in "Six Memos for the Next Millennium"
courser, turn of phrase, encomium, apologia, digression, felicity, mot juste, syntony, focalization, laconic, metrical, impalpable and 17 more...
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Lover's Knot
concupiscence, leap, belly bumping, leg business, venery, light skirts, lightness, light-heeled, loose-bodied, fellatrix
Tweets
Looking for tweets for lightness.
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