gravity

16th century, learned borrowing from Latin gravitās (“weight”) (compare French gravité), from gravis (“heavy”). Doublet of gravitas.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹævɪti/

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• Hyphenation: grav‧i‧ty

gravity (countable and uncountable, plural gravities)

1. Resultant force on Earth's surface, of the attraction by the Earth's masses, and the centrifugal pseudo-force caused by the Earth's rotation.
   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].

2. Gravitation, universal force exercised by two bodies onto each other
   (In casual discussion, gravity and gravitation are often used interchangeably).
   • 2012 January 1, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 86:

     Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories, including quantum electrodynamics and quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the theories.

3. The state or condition of having weight; weight; heaviness.
4. Specific gravity
5. The state or condition of being grave; seriousness.

   I hope you appreciate the gravity of the situation.

6. (music) The lowness of a note.

• weightfulness
• The state or condition of being grave: graveness, seriousness

• centre of gravity
• gravity-assist

• “gravity” in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.

• Gravitation in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)