SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
flippant
adjective
Showing an inappropriately casual or disrespectful attitude toward a serious matter.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Disrespectfully casual
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topFlippant implies an inappropriate attitude; facetious more specifically suggests attempted humor.
RELATED FORMS, ONE FEATURED ENTRY
The flippant family
These forms are closely related, but their grammar and use are not identical. Expand a form to compare its meaning and examples.
flippancynoun
An inappropriately light or disrespectful attitude toward a serious matter.
Inappropriate lightness
Closest synonyms
Related expressions
Her flippancy was out of place during the solemn announcement.
Your continued flippancy during this serious occasion is reprehensible.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See flippant in use
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.
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