[syn: liveliness, life, spirit, sprightliness]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Liveliness \Live"li*ness\, n. [From Lively.]
1. The quality or state of being lively or animated;
sprightliness; vivacity; animation; spirit; as, the
liveliness of youth, contrasted with the gravity of age.
--B. Jonson.
[1913 Webster]
2. An appearance of life, animation, or spirit; as, the
liveliness of the eye or the countenance in a portrait.
[1913 Webster]
3. Briskness; activity; effervescence, as of liquors.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Sprightliness; gayety; animation; vivacity; smartness;
briskness; activity. -- Liveliness, Gayety,
Animation, Vivacity. Liveliness is an habitual
feeling of life and interest; gayety refers more to a
temporary excitement of the animal spirits; animation
implies a warmth of emotion and a corresponding
vividness of expressing it, awakened by the presence of
something which strongly affects the mind; vivacity is a
feeling between liveliness and animation, having the
permanency of the one, and, to some extent, the warmth
of the other. Liveliness of imagination; gayety of
heart; animation of countenance; vivacity of gesture or
conversation.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
liveliness
n 1: general activity and motion [syn: liveliness,
animation]
2: animation and energy in action or expression; "it was a heavy
play and the actors tried in vain to give life to it" [syn:
liveliness, life, spirit, sprightliness]