SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
flippancy
noun
An inappropriately light or disrespectful attitude toward a serious matter.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Inappropriate lightness
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topLevity can be welcome in some settings; flippancy usually criticizes an unsuitable lack of seriousness.
RELATED FORMS, ONE FEATURED ENTRY
The flippant family
flippancy is grouped under flippant in the main dictionaries. This form keeps its meaning and previous study record.
flippantadjective
Showing an inappropriately casual or disrespectful attitude toward a serious matter.
Disrespectfully casual
Closest synonyms
Related expressions
A flippant joke was an unhelpful response to the volunteer's concern.
A flippant organizer answered a worried guest's report of a missing bag with a joke about traveling more lightly, dismissing the concern as entertainment.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See flippancy in use
Her flippancy was out of place during the solemn announcement.
Your continued flippancy during this serious occasion is reprehensible.
1 more example
Later, a volunteer described losing several days of paid work because the installation date had changed. A joking reply struck the group as callous because it ignored the seriousness of her situation. The coordinator asked for less flippancy while they discussed the problem.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license