Flippant meaning

flĭp'ənt
The definition of flippant is disrespectful or the lack of a serious attitude.

An example of flippant is when you make a sarcastic comment in response to a serious question.

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Marked by disrespectful levity or casualness; pert.

Apologized for his flippant remark.

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(archaic) Glib; speaking with ease and rapidity.
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(chiefly dialectal) Nimble; limber.
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Showing disrespect through a casual attitude, levity, and a lack of due seriousness; pert.
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Talkative; voluble.
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Glib; talkative.
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Frivolous and disrespectful; saucy; impertinent.
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Origin of flippant

1595, from Northern English dialectal flippand (“prattling, babbling, glib”), present participle of flip (“to babble”), of North Germanic origin. Cognate with Icelandic fleipa (“to babble, prattle”), Swedish dialectal flepa (“to talk nonsense”). Alteration of -and suffix (a variant of the participial -ing) to -ant probably due to influence of words in -ant.

Sentence Examples

  • "It's okay," he said in a flippant tone.

  • Something about his flippant answer made her think he would be a master at verbal fencing.

  • So many people have a flippant attitude to the potential risks and effects of skin cancer.

  • Classicism in the shape of solid, respectable Hummel on the one hand, and Carl Czerny, a trifle flippant, perhaps, and inclined to appeal to the gallery, on the other, these gave the musical parentage of young Liszt.

  • Kate Gosselin has been ravaged in the media for her sometimes questionable treatment of her kids, and flippant attitude.

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Words near flippant in the Dictionary