gravity

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin gravitās (“weight”) (compare French gravité), from gravis (“heavy”). Doublet of gravitas. First attested in the 16th century.

noun

1. The state or condition of having weight; weight; heaviness.
2. The state or condition of being grave; seriousness.
   I hope you appreciate the gravity of the situation.
   The gravity of the situation which confronts the world today necessitates my appearance before a joint session of the Congress. The foreign policy and the national security of this country are involved. March 12, 1947, Harry S. Truman, 1:05 from the start, in MP72-14 Excerpt - Truman Doctrine Speech, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162
   Since I believe that abortion is absolutely wrong I must choose the course that minimizes the support of it. The gravity of this issue is so great that I must consider my job expendable. 1990 E.E.O.C. v. University of Detroit, 904 F.2d 331
   Could the month's poor performance in these two sectors reveal the true gravity of the labor market's woes? 2011-09-03, Daniel Indiviglio, “August's Big Reversal for Manufacturing and Retail Jobs”, in The Atlantic
3. (music) The lowness of a note.
4. (physics) The force at the Earth's surface, of the attraction by the Earth's masses, and the centrifugal pseudo-force caused by the Earth's rotation, resulting from gravitation.
   Do you know that gravity is pulling at you, tugging at you, trying to drag you down, from the moment you awake in the morning till you tumble into bed at night? 1950 January, Howard Hayes, “You and Gravity”, in The Atlantic
   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[…]. 2013-06-07, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36
5. (loosely, see usage notes) Gravitation, the universal force exercised by two bodies onto each other.
   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. 2012 January, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 2012-01-26, page 86
6. (physics) Specific gravity.