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flippant

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flippant

  • /ˈflɪp.ənt/ UK, US

Where it comes from

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 from words in -ant.

adjective more flippant · most flippant

  1. Showing disrespect through a casual attitude, levity, and a lack of due seriousness; pert. a sort of flippant, vain discourse
  2. archaic Loquacious; speaking with ease and rapidity. November 5, 1673, Isaac Barrow, sermon on the Gunpowder Treason It becometh good men, in such cases, to be pleasantly flippant and free in their speech.
  3. dialectal Nimble; limber.

Opposite: serious

Thesaurus

adjective

Opposite: serious

Translations

Every language

adj lacking respect

Españolfresco, poco serio
日本語ぶしつけな bushitsuke-na, 生意気な namaiki-na
中文輕浮 /轻浮 qīngfú, 輕佻 /轻佻 qīngtiāo, 無禮 /无礼 wúlǐ
Portuguêsinsolente, impertinente
Françaisdésinvolte, cavalier
Deutschschnodderig, vorlaut, frech, oberflächlich, leichtfertig, mit fehlender Ernsthaftigkeit
Italianoimpertinente, disinvolto, faceto, frivolo, irriverente, sapientone
Русскийде́рзкий dérzkij, на́глый náglyj, наха́льный naxálʹnyj, неуважительный neuvažitelʹnyj

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MLA

"flippant." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/flippant. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

flippant. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/flippant

Chicago

"flippant." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/flippant.

BibTeX
@misc{flippant_2026,
  title = {flippant},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/flippant},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}