gravity
noun
Simple meaning
The phenomenon that, on earth, objects have weight.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
gravuhteeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡɹævəti
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
physics
The phenomenon that, on earth, objects have weight; the similar phenomenon on other celestial bodies such as the moon.
looselysee usage notes
Gravitation, the universal force exercised by two bodies on each other by virtue of their masses.
physics
A law or laws of gravitation: any theory which attempts to account for the phenomena of weight and/or the mutual attraction of massive objects (Aristotelian gravity, Newtonian gravity).
The state or condition of having weight; weight; heaviness.
The state or condition of being grave; seriousness.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (loosely, see usage notes) Gravitation, the universal force exercised by two bodies on each other by virtue of their masses.
Used this way, gravity is a reasonably familiar word with a mildly favourable edge. It turns up most in ethics or values contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Ethics/values
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use gravity
- “The more remote the body the less the gravity.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A tool used by an engraver.
A sauce made by adding stock, flour, or other ingredients to the juice and fat that drips from cooking meats.
In a grave and sober manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A trajectory that passes close to a planetary body in order to gain energy from its gravitational field.
A bomb that falls because of gravity and is not guided to a target.
An inclined fault in which the hanging wall appears to have slipped downward relative to the footwall.
A gradient in the gravitational forces acting on different parts of a nonspherical object.
A measuring instrument for measuring variations in the gravitational field of the earth.
A wave that is hypothesized to propagate gravity and to travel at the speed of light.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A wave that is hypothesized to propagate gravity and to travel at the speed of light.
The implosion of a star resulting from its own gravity.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.