different between levity vs volatility

English

Etymology

Coined in 1564, from Latin levit?s (“lightness, frivolity”), from levis (“lightness (in weight)”). Cognate to lever, and more distantly, light.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?l?.v?.ti/

Noun

levity (usually uncountable, plural levities)

1. Lightness of manner or speech, frivolity; lack of appropriate seriousness; inclination to make a joke of serious matters.
2. (obsolete) Lack of steadiness.
3. The state or quality of being light, buoyancy.

   • Most of the confidences were unsought - frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation or a hostile levity […]

   • 1838, Robert Montgomery Bird, Peter Pilgrim

     […] it would really seem as if there was something nomadic in our natures, a principle of levity and restlessness […]

   • 1869, Mary Somerville, On Molecular and Microscopic Science 1.1.12:

     Hydrogen […] rises in the air on account of its levity.

4. (countable) A lighthearted or frivolous act.

Antonyms

• gravity

Derived terms

• levitous

Translations

References

English

Etymology

volatile +? -ity

Noun

volatility (countable and uncountable, plural volatilities)

1. The state of being volatile
   1. (uncountable) The state of having a low boiling point and evaporating readily
   2. (computing, uncountable) The state of not retaining data in the absence of power.
   3. (uncountable) The state of being able to fly.
   4. (uncountable) The state of being unpredictable
   5. (finance, countable) A quantification of the degree of uncertainty about the future price of a commodity, share, or other financial product

Translations