Word.ws English Dictionary

make light of

make light of verb: to regard without due seriousness; to joke about.

Verb

make light of (third-person singular simple present makes light of, present participle making light of, simple past and past participle made light of)

  1. (idiomatic) To regard without due seriousness; to joke about.
    • I wish you wouldn't make light of the matter, when it obviously means a great deal to him.
    • It was also a satisfying night for England coach Capello. Not only did he have a vital victory to celebrate, but his team selection was fully justified as Cahill gave an almost flawless performance in defence and Scott Parker's display made light of the surprising exclusion of Frank Lampard.2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC
    Synonyms:
    take lightly

make light of meaning in Kannada and Arabic

make light of in Kannada

ಲಘುವಾಗಿ ಎಣಿಸು, ಅಲ್ಪವೆಂದು ಭಾವಿಸು

make light of in Arabic

regard without due seriousness
اِسْتَخَفَّ istaḵaffa, اِسْتَهَانَ istahāna

Synonyms of make light of

Forms of make light of

third-person singular presentmakes light of
present participlemaking light of
past participlemade light of
pastmade light of

Origin of make light of

From Make light work of.

Questions about make light of

What does make light of mean?
Make light of means to regard without due seriousness; to joke about.
What is make light of in Kannada?
Make light of in Kannada is ಲಘುವಾಗಿ ಎಣಿಸು, ಅಲ್ಪವೆಂದು ಭಾವಿಸು. See Make light of meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is make light of?
Make light of is a verb.
What is the past tense of make light of?
The past tense of make light of is made light of.

Words near make light of in the dictionary

  1. make it up to
  2. make known
  3. make land
  4. make landfall
  5. make lemonade
  6. make light of
  7. make light work of
  8. make like
  9. make like a baby and head out
  10. make like a banana and split
  11. make like a tree

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: make light of (page history and authors); make light of (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-make light of.ogg.

Cite this entry: “make light of.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/make_light_of. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.